By BRAD PERRY

THE Lower Lakes and Coorong may be saved from the brink of collapse following an announcement on Tuesday that New South Wales will provide environmental water flows to South Australia but the news has left local irrigators scratching their heads.

With water allocations stranded on 48 per cent, Riverland growers doing it tough were hoping to secure a share of the 500 gigalitres of flood

waters in the Murray and Darling rivers but that request was denied.

“New South Wales wouldn’t entertain an arrangement where they took water away from their irrigators and gave it to South Australian irrigators,” River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald told the Riverland Weekly yesterday.

“There will be some water remaining available to New South Wales irrigators under their laws because the rain has fallen there and it is their water. “I’d love to be able to provide some to irrigators but it is conditional the water is available for the environment only.”

Minister Maywald said it was a big win for the state after it was expected the NSW government would store the floodwater.

Negotiations as to how much water SA will get from NSW and where and how the water will be delivered were being finalised at a Murray Darling Basin Authority meeting in Canberra last night.

Minister Maywald said the water received from interstate will go towards rescuing the dire state of the River Murray below Lock One.

“Below Lock One we have serious issues with riverbank slumping, serious issues with the continuation of the dropping of the water level below Lock One and we need to address those as a matter of urgency and this water will have significant benefits,” she said.

“We need to recover the river from the bottom up, if we don’t, the cancer will continue below Lock One and we don’t want that to occur.

“This is going to slow down the pace of decline, this is not going to fill the system up...which will give us the opportunity for another winter to actually turn things around.” South Australian Murray Irrigators chairperson Caren Martin is happy the state will receive water but is disappointed it will only be for environmental needs.

“Irrigators definitely want more water but we will accept that we can’t dictate the terms with New South Wales,” she said.

“I think it (the decision) will take the pressure off our ministers to find more water for the Lower Lakes.” According to Rural Financial Counsellor Max Baker, who deals with many local growers, it is important to restore the health of the river system.

“It has to be a balance of water for irrigators and the environment,” he said.

“At 48 per cent, most grape growers have got enough water for this year...for the sake of the river there has got to be decent flows and it is good the states are co-operating (to provide some water).”

Mr Baker grew to enjoy the environment below Lock One whilst living in Meningie years ago and said it was sad to see the dairy farming community severely affected by the drought.