Dear Minister Watt

I am writing to you about the Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism (SDLAM) projects, which have failed to deliver the promised outcomes for the health of the Murray-Darling river system.  

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In 2012, when the Basin Plan was introduced, the goal was to address the over-allocation of water and return the river system to health. That meant returning 3200 GL per year of water to rivers and wetlands. The unfortunate reduction of that target in 2017 by 605 GL per year in exchange for a range of unnecessary, costly and unwanted SDLAM offset projects has led to years of delays and less water getting to the rivers and wetlands that desperately need it. 

Since 2017, that 605 GL per year has remained available to be bought and sold on water markets despite most SDLAM projects not having been delivered. This means that the Basin’s resilience has been tested and deprived of water and meaningful restoration for a whole decade. 

The SDLAM projects are problematic for a number of reasons: 

• Rivers and wetlands need water, not more concrete and engineering projects. Recovering the water and letting it flow would deliver far greater benefits.
• These engineering projects mean the health of the wetlands and floodplains becomes linked to infrastructure that needs to be operated and maintained in perpetuity, further alienating wetlands and floodplains from the natural cycles that sustain them.
• These projects are destructive – often resulting in the removal of old and culturally significant trees, bulldozing of habitat and damage to cultural sites and values.
• The SDLAM projects have been used as a tactic to delay the delivery of much-needed water for wetlands. This is unacceptable.

Rivers and wetlands need water and natural flow patterns, not more concrete and pipes. Please ensure this scheme ends here and that no water offset projects are allowed in any future water recovery targets.