24 - Environmental Law and Irrigated Land in Australia

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Australia's waterways are at a crisis point. This is evidenced from the amount of water-related “reform” that the Australian Governments have embarked on over the past 10 years. Almost all of the country's capital cities are currently under severe water restrictions and experiencing a drought that has caused unprecedented shortages of water for irrigation.

Today, in Australia, irrigated agricultural land has a gross value of production of $8.6 billion/year. This land occupies 2.5 million hectares, which represents less than 0.5 percent of the country's land and yet uses 75 percent of all of the water harvested. Approximately two-thirds of the total agricultural production derives from the Murray-Darling Basin, which spans four Australian states: New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (Vic), South Australia (SA), and Queensland (Qld). Clearly, irrigation is important to Australia, but past practices have resulted in severe degradation of its water resources. It has been acknowledged in Australia that water resources are being used inefficiently, and overexploitation and unsustainable practices have resulted. The relevant legal framework has been far too complex with separate legislation in each state and no legal recognition of water sources crossing boundaries. There was no legislative limit on the number of water users in the irrigation schemes, so demand inevitably outstripped supply. The legislation was fragmented, with separate laws covering groundwater versus surface water. The laws required no consideration of environmental impact.