A SURPRISE moratorium on water licences slapped on the Wet Tropics has "locked-up" the banana industry and affects hundreds of people's livelihoods from farmers to bore drillers, growers say.
Angry farmers and irrigation companies said they had no forewarning of the State Government’s freeze on licences, made public last week on the same day it came into effect. The ban, which could last up to three years, has been imposed to protect wetlands that provide nursery grounds for marine life and habitat for the endangered animals found only in the Wet Tropics.
Department of Environment and Resource Management deputy director-general Debbie Best said its introduction allowed the State Government to compile a water resource plan.
She said it would also give water security to banana growers, cane farmers, tropical fruit producers and water-drinking populations from Cairns to Ingham.
But her announcement has caught hundreds of people on the hop.
The licence freeze, which covers new bores and surface water works, applies to groundwater, watercourses, lakes and springs.
It hits the primary industries hard but does not affect current licences, domestic and stock needs or water for town supplies, indigenous communities, firefighting and road building.
Banana farmers say it will seriously restrict their $400 million industry and many other farms from diversifying.
Tully grower and Australian Banana Growers Council president Cameron Mackay yesterday called for evidence in his area of any signs of either overuse or swampland degradation.
A devastated Norm Bliesner from Cairns company Ingham Drilling described the sudden decision as crippling for his business, with its heavy focus on commercial jobs.
Up to 200 people apply for new water licences across the Wet Tropics moratorium area – from Wujal Wujal in the north to Mt Garnet and Ingham – in a typical year.
A Department of Environment and Resources Management spokesman said water use had increased tenfold in the region since the 1980s.
He said some underground bores were less reliable in the dry season and some streams had stopped flowing.
Federal MP Bob Katter and Cassowary Coast Mayor Bill Shannon will chair 6.30pm public action meetings next week at the Innisfail Senior Citizens Centre on Wednesday, the Tully Mill Recreation Hall on Thursday and the Ingham Bowls Club on Friday.
