Murray-Darling Basin plan: Victoria will struggle to meet water delivery obligations by deadline

Victoria will struggle to meet its obligations under the $13bn Murray-Darling Basin plan by the legislated deadline, and could join New South Wales in pushing for concessions when ministers meet in October.

The Guardian reported on Thursday that NSW is planning to seek exemptions or changes to its commitments under the plan to deliver the equivalent of 605GL to the river system by way of projects that create more efficient use of water. The NSW government said it cannot meet the 2024 deadline.

These projects are known as the sustainable diversion limit adjustment mechanism (SDLAM) projects and were agreed to by state governments as a quid pro quo for farmers continuing to use the equivalent amount of water in agriculture.

Other NSW projects are either still at the conceptual stage or way behind schedule.

NSW has suggested projects like building fish ladders to help the movement of native fish upstream when water is low should be taken into account, even though they do not deliver more water to the rivers.

Victoria is struggling to meet some of its commitments in different areas.

In addition, Victoria was expected to deliver most of a separate tranche of water, known as the 450GL efficiency projects, which were mainly to occur on-farm.

This included projects like lining irrigation canals to stop seepage.

But only 2.6GL of this target has so far been delivered.

This means projects will only go ahead if it can be demonstrated they do not hurt farmers and farming towns.

Last month, the Murray Darling Basin Authority issued a report card on the progress of the plan which has just 20 months to run. A further assessment will be given to ministers at the October meeting.