Debit water accounts, rather than destroy the river.

Since 2014, WaterNSW have had a protocol in the Macquarie-Cudgegong Valley where if a water ordering customer has a history of cancelling water orders after they’ve been released from the dam, their water account can be debited by the volume of water they order, not the volume they pump.

To date, this protocol hasn’t been applied, rather water customers who habitually order more water than they need are only debited the volume of water they pump.

The capture of rainfall rejection orders is the main reason being put forward for the construction of the enormous in channel dam at Gin Gin.

Why should the public be asked to foot the large bill of over $30 million for a massive gated structure that will dam the river for 30 km, destroying Red Gums and making the river uninhabitable for native fish? 

This dam would withhold water from the internationally recognised Ramsar listed Macquarie Marshes, put the town of Warren at higher risk of running out of water, deny natural tributary inflows to the creeks and the Lower Macquarie and make connection between the Macquarie and Barwon Rivers even harder to achieve.

If water customers have a habit of ordering more water than they extract, then why doesn’t WaterNSW use the protocol and debit their accounts?

Water Order Debiting Macquarie Cudgegong