Riverland-based Basin Communities Committee member, and National Irrigators Council deputy chair, Rosalie Auricht, has provided the following insights regarding current water policy issues…

Rosalie Auricht, Murray Pioneer

A lot can happen in a very short time in the water space, and 2026 is shaping up to be a big year in water policy within the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB).

In the first half of January, Federal Minister for Environment and Water, Murray Watt, announced that the Lower Murray, from the Darling River down, has been listed as Critically Endangered on the recommendation of Australia’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and that SA’s $20m Sustainable Communities Program, to counter the impact of water recovery for the environment, is now open. The SA Government also launched consultation on the SA Constraints Measures Community Infrastructure Investigation. This is in addition to the 2026 Basin Plan Review with consultation to commence in February.

Federal water recovery from intensive irrigation networks across the Basin can so easily rip the heart out of the social and economic fabric of those communities. The underfunded Federal Sustainable Communities Program, now opened in SA, is designed to diversify economies as they transition away from irrigation. The program provides no comfort to irrigators in intensive irrigation network areas like the Riverland.

At the Basin Leadership Summit in November 2025, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s audit on the state of the Basin revealed that where water can get to the floodplains, vegetation has improved, where it can’t, vegetation continues to decline. The Lower Murray was the stand-out for the wrong reasons – its floodplains need regular high rivers and South Australians are well aware that the frequency of natural high rivers has declined over time.

Listing the Lower Murray floodplains as Critically Endangered is a noble gesture, yet the listing will only lead to improvement of the Lower Murray floodplain if it is accompanied by significant funding for practical on-ground actions, such as pest control and constraint removal upstream of the Lower Murray. Although around 3000GL of water is already held by the Commonwealth for the environment, constraints are blocking planned high rivers on the Lower Murray, as was envisaged by the creators of the Basin Plan and South Australia.

The SA Government has opened consultation on its Constraints Measures Community Infrastructure Investigation to ensure planned high rivers of up to 80GL flow rates per day can occur without impacting businesses and communities within the 1956 level floodplains (for SA businesses operating extraction points – consider modern fish screens as was funded by the Commonwealth in the Northern Basin. High rivers do increase debris and juvenile fish).

Basin constraints include water management rules and policies. These can be negotiated over time, though water rights must not be eroded unless compensated. Upstream constraints include physical constraints to flow – think built banks, fixed wharf and mooring structures, no or low bridges for road access, track crossings, and community and private infrastructure on the floodplains. These can all be addressed with the political will and funding. However, overcoming the legalities of flooding private floodplains with planned high rivers is a big challenge. With the right compensation, some farmers see a potential benefit with regular planned high rivers growing floodplain pastures for their livestock, other intensive floodplain farmers are totally opposed. Some people are opposed as their property cannot be accessed during high rivers. Owners of floodplain hobby farms and domestic dwellings present a significant group of constraints.

The MDBA has prepared a Roadmap for removal of the constraints in the Basin, but it will take time (up to 10 years) and funding (about $2bn) and has not yet been approved by the Commonwealth. Removal of constraints for the SA desired 80GL per day at the Border not only enables water from planned high rivers to reach the Lower Murray floodplains, it will also build resilience in Basin communities during natural high rivers.

The impact of the Critically Endangered listing on businesses, landowners and local governments, who wish to change existing infrastructure on the floodplains, is not clear. Will it add more regulatory burden and time delays for proposed sustainable economic activity in South Australia? Will the Basin’s uncontrolled greenfield irrigation developments simply move above the Lower Murray zone to avoid increased regulation, further reducing the water flowing past the Darling connection and curtailing economic growth in the Lower Murray?

A December dash to Arizona, USA for family reasons, reinforced how advanced we are in our Basin management and water rights regulation. In Arizona, precious groundwater resources are used at a greater rate than the recharge. Large users, some foreign owned, are extracting without any metering or reporting regulation, and households are regularly lowering their domestic bores (wells in USA speak) due to over extraction and dropping water tables.

Regulation of our Basin is better than no regulation, provided the regulation remains practical and delivers positive, balanced outcomes for our riverine ecosystem, our businesses and communities. A focus on removal of constraints by all Basin governments is key to achieving that balance.

Rosalie Auricht is a member of the Basin Communities Committee and Deputy Chair of the National Irrigators Council. This is her view and not an official representation of those organisations or any other organisation.

This article appeared in Murray Pioneer, 21 January 2026.