MURRAY Darling Basin irrigators are floodplain harvesting an average 900 gigalitres a year into their massive on-farm dams, which have a combined capacity of 2600 gigalitres.
This is just one of the findings outlined in the National Water Commission's latest audit on unregulated water harvesting in Australia released last week.
The audit found Queensland irrigators have built about 1625 gigalitres of storage in which to capture the northern basin's floodwaters, with their NSW counterparts holding about 950 gigalitres of storage for floodplain harvesting.
Across Australia, the commission found forestry plantations used about 2000 gigalitres a year, farm dams 1600 gigalitres, stock and domestic activities 1100 gigalitres.
NWC chief executive Ken Matthews said these significant uses of water needed to be brought within the water planning and management fold, both to manage current and future growth.
The report found about 5600 gigalitres of the nation's water are currently unregulated.
