IT has long been predicted that one day wars would be waged over water.
Well, that day has come.
That might sound dramatic, but farmers and their communities have well and truly declared war on the Federal Government and its Murray-Darling Basin Authority over plans to rip up to 4000 billion litres of water from irrigators.
The Victorian Farmers Federation yesterday launched a "Fair Go fund" to finance the fight.
But, while farmers lead the battle, this is an issue that affects everyone. In the 13 days since the MDBA plan was revealed, communities across the basin _ home to 2.1 million people _ have been shellshocked and enraged.
Shellshocked the authority wants up to 45 per cent of farmers' water entitlements for the environment. And enraged the authority did not consider the social and economic impact on communities and businesses, nor explore the option of fixing the irrigation system to save water.
VFF president Andrew Broad has quite rightly declared the authority's proposal as a "legislated drought".
Think about that. A government taking away the lifeblood of communities - water - in the same way a natural drought does. And with it all the problems drought brings.
There is a belief that because farmers survived 13 years of drought, then they should be able to handle similar water cuts.
But farmers took on frightening debt levels to buy feed or water to get them through to better times.
A legislated drought will never end, so farmers cannot take on debt in the same way.
They will, in most cases, simply have to get out. This is not a farmer versus environment war. It is a fight over how best to restore river flows.
Farmers have long known the environment needs its fair share of water.
For instance, the north-south pipeline to send water to Melbourne was the idea of Goulburn Valley farmers and business people as part of a plan to split water savings between farms and the environment.
What we have is a fight over how best to boost river flows and by how much.
The MDBA's plan does not stand scrutiny because it cannot justify how it arrived at 4000 billion litres.
Simplistic maths that fails to account for the different ways states manage water has shown their work to be a farce.
And failure to take into account that some water cannot be cut - town and city water supplies, for instance - makes a mockery of their final figures.
But what really irks communities is the authority's view that the only way to return water to the environment is to simply buy it.
There has been little mention of efficiency improvements that can deliver water to both the environment and farmers that would save water and communities.
The Weekly Times this week identified one Murray River project that could save 1100 billion litres by spending just $43 million to regulate flooding.
It would appear the only ones who support the MDBA's logic are the economic rationalists who cannot see that while buying water costs about half that of fixing the system, the latter will deliver far greater long-term benefits to both rivers and communities.
And the money is there to do it.
The Government committed $5.8 billion in 2007 to make the water system more efficient. Only $300 million of that has been spent.
By simply buying water, the devastation will stretch well beyond rural communities. Many would be surprised by the tentacles of agriculture in Victoria.
Dairy, for instance, is the largest exporter out of the Port of Melbourne, with $2.3 billion shipped this year.
If dairy production were cut - with much of our milk coming from the Murray-Darling Basin - the impact on jobs in transport, storage and the Port would be immense.
Then there are rural companies with head offices in Melbourne - Murray Goulburn and AWB, for instance.
They will be hit by water cuts. Have you seen all those new tractors lined up next to the Ring Road and Geelong Freeway near Altona?
There'll be less need for them - and the people who sell and service them.
Does your employer manufacture anything that is carted north up the Hume, Calder or Ballarat freeways?
They will be hit.
Harvey Norman, Myer, Officeworks, Bunnings - all will feel the impact if water is taken from farmers.
Don't think the protest scenes we saw in Deniliquin and Griffith last week were committed by a "bunch of whingeing farmers".
They are people like you, fighting for their livelihoods, their communities and their children's future. And they just might be fighting for yours.
- Ed Gannon is the editor of The Weekly Times
