Selling water for the environment: How sustainable is it for irrigators?

Abstract

Up to one fifth of all irrigators in the Murray-Darling Basin had sold water entitlements to the Australian Government's Restoring the Balance program by 2012. The sale of water entitlements can have many direct and indirect consequences for irrigators, irrigator organisations, tourism, rural communities and the environment. This study specifically focuses on the consequences for irrigators, and provides an overview of the reasons why farmers sell water, and fluctuations in water use by irrigators over time. It predicts that, on average, irrigators that have sold water to the Australian Government in the southern Murray-Darling Basin have sold all their surplus water. As a consequence, without further water management or farm changes, they are likely to face water shortages three to four years every decade in the future. © 2012 WIT Press.