A CSIRO report has revealed that farmers in the Murray Darling Basin could lose as much as 30% of their water entitlements over 20 years, twice what the Murray Darling Basin Commission has suggested in The Living Murray discussion paper. Conservatively, the cost to governments of buying water to make up the volumes proposed would be $1.7 billion, which is probably more than it would cost to line the irrigation channels and save huge water losses to seepage. Pat Byrne reports.When the Murray Darl…
