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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-23 Daily Xml
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WATER RESTRICTIONS

Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:06): My question is again to the Minister for Water Security. What criteria will the minister use to determine when water restrictions will be lifted in Adelaide, given that the Adelaide Hills water storages are approaching fullness?

The Hon. K.A. MAYWALD (Chaffey—Minister for the River Murray, Minister for Water Security) (15:06): I am very hopeful that, in the fullness of time, the member for MacKillop may one day actually understand the water situation, the water balance, in this state, but, obviously, I am going to have to explain it to him again.

The South Australian reservoirs in the Mount Lofty Ranges hold less than 12 months' supply for Adelaide. They do not hold major supply, as in New South Wales and Victoria, where they have three or four years' worth of supply in their dams when the dams are full. We have less than 12 months' supply. In fact, our backup, as the member for MacKillop well knows, is the Hume and Dartmouth dams, and until we start to see a recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin system, South Australia's backup supply of water remains at risk.

The water that is going into our dams at the moment is very welcome, though. It is extremely welcome to see the rain falling and our dams improving. The improvement in our dams provides for us an opportunity to pump less from the River Murray, which is great news, which is fantastic news. Pumping less from the River Murray means that we able to hold more in Hume and Dartmouth, and it enables us to reserve that water for our requirements for the following years' critical human needs.

The balance is important. We need to ensure that we still maintain vigilance, because the Murray-Darling Basin is not out of the woods yet. It is not out of the woods yet, and any suggestion from the opposition that that is the case is just foolishness.

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