UPDATE: FARMERS have slammed an independent report that says Murrumbidgee and Murray irrigators should make big sacrifices to help revive the Murray-Darling Basin.
In a report out today, the Wentworth Group says the Murray Darling Basin Cap needs to be cut by 30 per cent to deliver an extra 3200 billion litres to the environment.
The Group's proposed cut is on top of the 1200 billion litres the State and Federal Governments have already recovered through water purchases and infrastructure savings.
The cut would drain at least $2.7 billion out of the basin's economy, however the scientists say the pain would not be shared equally across the basin's 18 catchments.
In their Sustainable Diversions in the Murray Darling Basin Report, the Wentworth Group advocates cutting Murray Valley diversions by 39 per cent and Murrumbidgee Valley by 65 per cent.
In contrast the group says diversions in other Victorian catchments would be 1 per cent or less and in the northern Darling Basin less than 9 per cent.
Even the Condamine-Balone diversions would only need to be 8 per cent, the report says.
The group has also called for more to be spent on buying irrigators' water.
The Federal Government has allocated $3.1 billion to buying irrigators water entitlement and another $5.8 billion to increasing water use efficiency under its Water for the Future program. So far the Government has spent $1.2 billion on water purchases.
But the Wentworth Group called for another $2.7 billion to be spent on buying the extra 3200 billion litres of irrigators water and diverting $5 billion into a public infrastructure fund "to assist the communities most affected by reductions in diversions to restructure their economies".
The report has been released in the leadup to the Murray Darling Basin Authority's own estimate of sustainable diversion limits due out mid-year.
Murrumbidgee Irrigation was quick to reject it and the suggested cut of 65 per cent to the region.
Chairwoman Gillian Kirkup said such drastic moves would only pit communities against each other.
"If the Wentworth Group truly believe that it is within their power to unilaterally redistribute people's rights, and displace whole communities, then I invite them to the Murrumbidgee Valley,'' Ms Kirkup said.
"They can identify who is to stay and who is to go.''
The National Farmers Federation slammed the report as "cavalier", claiming it would put an end to the basin as the nation's food bowl.
Natural resource manager Deb Kerr said the valuation of regions was based on old data, and overlooked the technologies used to make water go further.
"I would hope that the draft basin plan is a lot smarter,'' Ms Kerr said.
"This would wreak havoc and devastation in our rural communities.''
The Victorian Farmers' Federation also weighed in, slamming the report as "fundamentally flawed".
“The economic modelling used by the report ignores the devastating social impacts such a suggestion would have, not only on the Basin’s communities, but also on the nation’s livelihood and stability," VFF's water council chair Richard Anderson said.
"Thousands of farmers and their families would be put at risk, huge investments in irrigation infrastructure would be left idle, thousands of jobs would be lost and food production would drop placing upward pressure on grocery prices in our capital cities and right around the country.”
“The adjustment model advocated within the report is fundamentally unfair. The consequences of robbing irrigators of $5 billion worth of legally held water entitlements are almost inconceivable.”
"The cost of adopting the recommendations outlined in today’s report would see hundreds of rural communities put at risk.”
Federal Water Minister Penny Wong said she hadn't seen the report but welcomed the contribution.
"We have to prepare our food bowl ... for a future where we're likely to see less water,'' Senator Wong told reporters in Canberra.
The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is an independent group of leading Australian environmentalists, economists, scientists and business leaders, including former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery.
with AAP
