Farmers In SEQ Don't Need Ad's to Tell Them About Drought

[westholme]

Long time coming

John Cherry

August 14, 2006 12:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail
FARMERS in southeast Queensland don't need a full-page advertisement from the Premier to tell them they are in the midst of a water emergency.
Farmers and their families have been dealing with drought conditions now for six years.

The southeast is home to more than 4000 farm businesses employing about 21,000 people and with an annual output in excess of $800 million.

For communities in the Warrill, Lockyer, Logan, Brisbane and Mary valleys and the Sunshine Coast hinterland, farming is the bedrock of the local economy and the community. And the lack of water is biting hard.

In the Warrill Valley, farmers have been without irrigation water allocations for more than five years, watching the dwindling reserves from Moogerah Dam flow past their farms to the Swanbank power station. In the Logan Valley, farmers have been without irrigation water for two years as the water in Maroon Dam has been reserved for urban users in Beaudesert.

And the storages in the Lockyer have been empty for some time.

Farmers who rely on river flows and rainfall in the Stanley, Brisbane Valley, Warrill and Logan catchments have also been without irrigation water for a considerable time.

They are concerned about proposals in the recently released water resource plans to cut their water access to secure urban supply.

Without water, farming is not viable. While urban dwellers have been watching their lawns brown off, farmers have had to live with large cuts in farm income as drought has reduced farm returns.

The Queensland Farmers Federation is pleased that the State Government and local governments have decided to work together to address the crisis.

Indeed, much has already been happening. The state has committed $15 million to help farmers improve rural water use efficiency in southeast Queensland, building on the success of a similar program in the rest of the state which has saved about 300,000 megalitres a year.

Irrigators have been involved in an intensive consultation exercise with government to determine what their water needs are as part of the SEQ Regional Water Strategy.

The message from farmers has been clear – they are not seeking more water from the existing supply, but more secure and reliable entitlements to ensure a long-term future for farming in southeast Queensland as envisaged in the SEQ Regional Plan released last year.

On-farm water use efficiency, improved use of existing and water infrastructure and reuse of recycled water should all be part of the rural water strategy.

But that is more about the future. In the emergency situation we face now, farmers want a chair at the table to discuss how our dwindling water resources can best be used.

Before the Brisbane City Council decides to draw from aquifers in Brisbane's outer suburbs, has it considered the impact on rural enterprises already relying on their aquifers for intensive farming or nursery production?

The nursery sector has lost up to 70 per cent of its income already in this drought, and faces a bleak year without rain or access to existing bores.

In the Logan, Lockyer and Warrill valleys, farmers are paying charges to the State Government for irrigation water that has not been delivered. If this is the worst drought ever as the Premier says, why can't these fees already reduced by the Government be waived completely?

The Queensland Farmers Federation would like to see full drought relief on irrigation fees included in any water emergency plan.

As we move to level-four water restrictions, how will that affect intensive animal and plant producers drawing from the urban supply?

State and local governments need to include rural users in any equation about sharing our scarce water resources until the drought breaks. More than 4000 farm businesses, $800 million of economic output and 21,000 jobs depend on it.

John Cherry is chief executive officer of the Queensland Farmers Federation