Mond

Wednesday, 26 July 2006

SYKES: MOKOAN DECOMMISSIONING DISASTER

If the proposed decommissioning of Lake Mokoan goes ahead as planned, it will join the long and growing list of project management disasters by the Bracks Government.

The cost of the project will blow out from $60 million to over $100 million, the claimed water savings may be as little as half of the original claims of 50,000 mega litres, security of supply of water to irrigators will be substantially less, the proposed wetlands is likely to become a weed infested jungle with feral cats and foxes ravaging endangered species and the flood risk to Benalla and downstream will be increased.

This disastrous situation has arisen because the Bracks Government is hell bent on finding water savings to honour a political commitment regardless of the social, economic and environmental impact on Benalla and the Broken River Irrigation System.

Cost blow outs include $24 million for rehabilitation of the wetlands and investment in tourism related infrastructure. The Government claim that this is not a cost blow out from the original allocation of $1 million seems based on the argument “yes, the total cost is $24 million, but as we are spending it over several years, it is not a blow out!”

Other cost blow outs include up to $10-$20 million for water offsets to honour the Minister’s written promise to maintain security of supply of water to irrigators.

The Government’s response on this issue is to reduce the level of security of supply of water and probably to buy back thousands of mega litres; both of these strategies put the future of the Broken River Irrigation System at risk.

Initial costings also omitted a cost of up to $10 million to buy salt credits.

On the water savings side – the original claim of 50,000 mega litres has been reduced as Government experts have been forced to accept local knowledge that the residual wetlands will have twice the surface area originally estimated.

Thus, we have a lake of up to 8,000 hectares being replaced by a swamp of up to 6,000 hectares. In some years there will be as little as 25% drop in evaporation losses ie 12,500 mega litres not 50,000 mega litres.

Further, several of the water savings strategies such as the Tungamah pipeline and total channel control management can be achieved independently of what happens to Lake Mokoan.

Community confidence in the project is plummeting as each additional example of incompetent, arrogant and deceitful management becomes public.

The sacking of the Government appointed Broken System Reliability Reference Committee was a significant catalyst in plummeting community confidence.

Then the Minister for Water refused to honour a commitment to an independent assessment of current level of security of water.

Irrigators have responded by setting up a Fighting Fund to seek legal opinion as well to alert the public of the impact of current proposals for decommissioning Lake Mokoan on their futures and the future of the area. In a nutshell, their futures are being sold down the river.

The solution to this impending disaster is for the Government to address the concerns of the community in relation to Lake Mokoan.

This means honouring its commitments to maintain the current security of supply of water to irrigators at an acceptable cost and to develop a world class wetland.

The Government must ensure that any increased risk of flood is acceptable to those who are going to be flooded!

Aboriginal Heritage sites must be protected and appropriate economic offsets must be put in place.

The community of Benalla and the Broken River Irrigation System are prepared to work with the Government to achieve a win – win outcome.

The irrigators believe that setting aside a small part of the existing lake for water storage whilst returning most of the lake back to wetlands will meet with security and environmental requirements.

We could live with that, how about it Mr Thwaites?