THE Victorian Government says it expects to save 39,660 megalitres of water for Melbourne from its $1 billion Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project this season.

The savings put the Government on track to deliver most of the 75,000 megalitres of northern Victorian water it promised to pump to Melbourne via the controversial north-south pipeline.

The 39,660 megalitres of savings come on top of:

  • 12,000 megalitres the Government is taking from the Goulburn system, which was traditionally diverted to Wimmera Mallee farmers and towns.
  • 10,000 megalitres from Eildon's water-quality reserve.
  • 10,000 megalitres of NVIRP water savings from the 2008-09 season.

Water Minister Tim Holding said the irrigation upgrades were progressing well.

"We are seeing significant water savings being set aside for Melbourne," Mr Holding said.

"As stage one of the upgrades are completed over the next three years we will see more and more water being set aside for farmers, rivers and Melbourne, and we will deliver on our water saving commitments.

"Let's not forget that the Liberal and National parties said there would be no water savings at all yet what we are seeing is even in dry years there are huge water savings being made."

But the savings are yet to be audited as agreed by the minister, raising questions about the validity of making such a precise claim so early in the season.

Additionally, many northern Victorian irrigators are holding water back this season, with Goulburn Murray Water's latest figures showing irrigators have only used 487,400 megalitres of the 1.52 million megalitres available to them this season.

It is unclear how much of this water irrigators may hold over until next season.

The Opposition has warned it will block crucial Government amendments to the Eildon-Goulburn bulk entitlement that allow Melbourne to divert NVIRP water savings down the north-south pipeline to Sugarloaf Reservoir.

However, the Government will still be able to divert the 22,000 megalitres of water down the pipeline next month that were not created from NVIRP.