Murray Valley farmers have welcomed increased water allocations, from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (DPI) Water .
Southern Riverina farmers lobby group Speak Up spokesperson, Shelley Scoullar said the 12 per cent increase brought the total general security allocation for the NSW Murray to 42pc.
But she said irrigators were concerned about figures for average general security carryover, which was set at 27pc of entitlements.
She said the DPI had given the incorrect impression overall water availability was 69pc.
“Governments should not make interpretation of figures, when reporting the availability of water,” Ms Scoullar said.
“Regional water groups have asked for the allocation announcements and carryover figures to be more accurately reflected to avoid giving incorrect generalisations; however their request has not been addressed to date.
“Farmers are not the only ones to own water in NSW Murray, speculators and the government also own water.”
She said Murray Irrigation only carried over 13pc of its volume.
“So who is carrying over how much is unclear,” Ms Scoullar said.
The announcement of increased entitlements gave farmers, planning summer crops, more confidence.
“Planting crops like rice is expensive, so having the confidence of knowing how much water you will have access to is critical in business planning to be as productive as possible,” Ms Scoullar said.
Regional farmers on general security water were aware water, which was borrowed last year, needed to be paid back to the Barmah – Millewa account.
“With environmental targets being met by flooding events this is a common sense decision by the department, it ensures that environmental outcomes are being met and rural communities are being productive,” Mrs Scoullar said.
A spokesman for DPI Water said the department was committed to helping irrigators make informed business decisions, by providing information in a timely manner regarding allocations, availability and outlooks.
This included providing 'average' general security carryover figures, twice a month in the publicly available water allocation statements.
“The carryover this year in the NSW Murray was 454,000 megalitres or about 27 per cent of the total general security entitlement available under the water sharing plan,” the spokesman said.
“DPI Water, as the resource manager, does not and can not distinguish between individual general security entitlement holders due to both commercial and privacy constraints.
“It respects and treats each licence holder the same.”
The spokesman said only general security entitlement holders were allowed to carryover water under the NSW Murray water sharing plan.
