Stored water adds to flooding risk

“We have more than 4,600 gigalitres of environmental water, and this is being regularly increased with the Federal Government’s insatiable appetite for water buybacks,” he said.

“The current government is targeting water buybacks that are stored in our major dams, increasing the flood risk, yet this is being ignored.”

A recent study by Climate Valuation has raised the alarm about flood risk from climate change, listing Shepparton as the nation’s most ‘at risk’ location, with the report indicating there are 86 communities across Australia in the ‘high risk’ category.

“If climate change is creating considerable flood risk, and making houses in some towns ‘uninsurable’ as the report says, how serious must the problem be when we factor in the additional risk from changing water management behaviour, which is changing when water is stored, how much is stored and when it is used?

“This is a catastrophe waiting to happen, but governments will not listen to the warnings.”

Major flooding in recent years has occurred in towns including Shepparton, Echuca, Rochester and Deniliquin.

Farmers and other community members were warning of flood potential, some up to six months before the event, but authorities refused to listen.

Mr Lolicato said there was a fascinating comment from the Climate Valuation CEO, who said “one of the major obstacles preventing (necessary) reform is that no-one is willing to admit there’s a problem”.

“It is the same situation with flooding risk from changes to management and storage,” Mr Lolicato said.

“It is a genuine and increasing problem, but the only thing we see from governments is buying and storing more water, making the situation worse.”

He said changes to water management are being ignored as a contributing factor to elevated flood risks.

“Water recovery under the Basin Plan has had a massive impact on water management, storage and usage, especially along the Murray River and its tributaries.

“More than 80 per cent of water recovery has come from the Southern Basin, and it is being stored in our dams, thus increasing dam levels, while changing storage and usage behaviour.

“We have seen changes to environmental river flows, with increased volumes in spring.

“When floodplains are inundated during these times there is reduced capacity to absorb unexpected heavy rain events which are most common in mid to late spring.

“We saw this in 2016 and again in 2022, and the more water we store, reducing the capacity of authorities to manage extreme events and reduce flooding, the greater the risk will become.”

Mr Lolicato added no-one is denying there has been an increase in extreme events, with climate change playing a role.

He said what governments refuse to acknowledge is the elevated flooding risk from their water policy decisions, and the subsequent risk this is posing to private and public infrastructure.

And, as so often happens, inevitably it is the taxpayer who foots the bill.