Goulburn-Murray Water’s 2024-25 irrigation season has already been a historically busy one, with more than 822,000 megalitres delivered to irrigators so far.
This is well above the average at this stage of the season, which is about 440,000 Ml, and is more than we delivered in the entirety of the 2019-20 and 2022-23 irrigation seasons.
Despite this, the busiest months are likely still to come.
The final months of the irrigation season tend to be when demand for water is highest, and with the recent dry weather, this season is likely to be no exception.
Fortunately, we are well prepared for this. A major part of this preparation has involved pre-emptively moving water to storages downstream in our delivery network.
In maintaining water levels in storages such as Waranga Basin and Ghow (Kow) Swamp, we are ensuring that when irrigation demand does increase, we already have water where we need it in our delivery network to minimise any delays irrigators may face.
We are also trying to help our customers prepare for increased demand, particularly in areas that may enter a rationing cycle including the Loddon Valley and Murray Valley districts.
Rationing happens rarely but helps ensure fairness for irrigators during times when irrigation demand is expected to exceed channel capacity for several weeks.
Under normal delivery conditions, the only restriction on the amount of water irrigators can order is their water allocation, which is how much water they are entitled to across a season.
In a rationing cycle, irrigators are limited to taking a percentage of their delivery share to ensure they receive their fair share of the available capacity in the channel supplying their property.
By implementing these restrictions during times of exceptionally high demand, we can continue providing our customers with access to water, even though the amount of water they can take during each rationing cycle is capped.
We recently held a series of drop-in sessions for customers to help answer any questions they might have on rationing and how they can prepare for it.
We have also developed various online resources to help customers better understand rationing. This includes a rationing calculator that enables people to see how much water they would have access to under different rationing scenarios and information about the forms that need to be completed to vary or transfer delivery share ahead of a rationing event.
It is difficult to be exact on when and where rationing may occur due to the many different factors that influence it.
To help give us a clearer indication of when we may need to implement a rationing cycle, our water systems operators closely monitor the orders we are receiving.
When there is no rain on the horizon and orders start to surge, we know we may be reaching levels where we need to ration.
However, before implementing a rationing cycle, our water systems planners will look to other solutions so that restrictions are not necessary.
This includes working with customers to reschedule orders and delivering orders 24/7 so that we are always making full use of the capacity in our delivery network.
We therefore only ration when it is absolutely necessary, meaning that when we do ration, it is because it is the most equitable option available under the circumstances.
If there are customers that still have any questions about rationing, then we are here to help.
They can contact their water planner or our general inquiry line on 1800 013 357.
For more information, or to use the rationing calculator, people can also visit our website: https://www.gmwater.com.au/rationing
– Charmaine Quick is the G-MW managing director.
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