The Victorian government has rejected claims it's hanging onto water, which could be released to northern irrigators.
Opposition Water spokeswoman Steph Ryan said the government was hanging onto the 75 gigalitres of irrigation entitlement, that could be used to relieve pressure on northern irrigators.
The 75GL entitlement is owned by Melbourne water corporations and held to top up Melbourne storages, in times of extreme drought.
"It's outrageous that (Water Minister) Lisa Neville is sitting on water when farmers in northern Victoria are desperate and it clearly is not needed in Melbourne," Ms Ryan said.
"Lisa Neville should have put this water onto the market in northern Victoria months ago, when it was clear there was no way Melbourne's storages would be below 30 per cent at the end of November."
In March the Minister said she had "required 75GL owned by Melbourne water corporations to remain in northern Victoria".
But despite announcing, on December 1, Melbourne's water supplies were "in a good position" the minister had failed to act immediately to bring forward the release of the water.
The water cannot be used by Melbourne's water corporations, unless Melbourne's total system storage level is less than 30 per cent on November 30.
On November 30, Melbourne's water storages were more than twice that level, at 63.8pc.
Ms Ryan said last water season it took until March for the government to deliver this water to irrigators.
At a time when people were being forced to pay more than $1000/megalitre for allocation water in northern Victoria, the Minister's inaction simply wasn't good enough.
Ms Neville rejected the claims.
"Since I have been minister I have always made it my priority to ensure the share of water savings received by Melbourne retail corporations from the Connections Project is made available in northern Victoria as soon as possible," Ms Neville said.
"The Independent Audit of Water Savings must be completed first so we don't undermine the reliability for existing users."
The water was expected to be available at the start of next year, as per normal.
"The amount available depends on the volumes of water delivered through the system in that year," she said
"It has typically been around 30 to 40GL per year and we expect a similar volume of water this year."