Local management of irrigation channels takes step forward

After announcing the offer this week, Minister for Energy, Biofuels and Water Supply Mark Bailey said the local management of water assets presents an opportunity for local Queensland communities to determine the future of their irrigation schemes.

“Local management will give greater transparency, while giving water users greater control of their water pricing and future changes to the scheme,” he said. 

Mr Bailey encouraged scheme customers in Emerald to consider the offer which relates to the transfer all below- dam water assets from SunWater to local ownership and comes with a $2.5 million to help with the transition.

Chair of the Board of Fairbairn Irrigation Network, a company set up to represent the interest of Emerald’s scheme customers, Annette Smith, said customers met last week to discuss the transition process that would occur if customers supported a move to local management in light of the offer.

Ms Smith said while the offer contains a smaller separation payment than that contained in the Business Proposal put to the government in 2014, the move provides irrigators with the opportunity to access Federal funding to modernise the scheme to achieve greater efficiency and generate water savings.

She said the decision would lay solely with the irrigators involved.

Between the offer from the State Government and a resolution, growers will have two opportunities to reject the proposal.

“Now we go through running the figures through the different models for budgetary purposes to see what it will look like, and once that is done we will go back to the growers,” Ms Smith said. 

“We will be able to say to the growers, ‘whilst we haven’t finished the engineering due diligance, this is what the pricing will look like, this is what we should be able to do’, and show them a budget.

“It will be their choice then as to whether they want to go further or not.”

If the irrigators choose to proceed, engineering due diligence will be carried out, and a prospectus will be completed. 

“Then we will go back to the growers and say ‘this is what the whole company would look like, did you want to become a shareholder’,” Ms Smith said. 

”We’re hoping to have everything done and a result by the end of January, but whether we can - it’s weather permitting and a busy time to get everyone in together.”

Ms Smith, who has been involved in the project for four years, said irrigators alone will decide if they want to take on the risks associated. 

“We will run the numbers - and it comes down to whether the growers want to take the risk,” she said. 

“While there’s opportunities, when you’re looking at how much money is being spent down south by the (Federal Government), and potentially being able to apply for that kind of funding for modernisation or channel lining, it’s a big pro.

“There’s risks that come with it too, there’s always risks, and it has to be their decision.”

The local management of the Emerald Irrigation Scheme will enable the transfer of irrigation and drainage infrastructure that currently distributes water to around 150 customers, irrigating 15,000 hectares of land.

Scheme customers in St George, Theodore and Eton are also considering offers from the State government while government-appointed boards in the Burdekin-Haughton, Bundaberg, Mareeba-Dimbulah and the Lower Mary are conducting further investigations into the local management option.

For more information about Local Management Arrangements (LMA) for SunWater’s irrigation channels is available at www.lmairrigation.com.au.