Future food production in the Murray-Darling Basin could be secured, and even expanded, if the Federal Government invested funding from its infrastructure and water programs to build a desalination plant for the river on the NSW South Coast.
It’s a bold idea, but one Monaro district farmer, Richard Lawson, has devoted the past six months to researching and is now lobbying for.
He is adamant it’s possible and affordable for the Government.
Mr Lawson, a former Canberra public servant, accountant and political staffer, said in all the debate on the Murray-Darling Basin there had been little to no mention of ways to increase or create new water.
Mr Lawson, who farms at Nimmitabel, brings a unique national perspective to the problem as his family has been farming in South Australia – at the bottom of the system – for generations.
He said the Federal Government had been too focused on reducing the amount of water available to farmers for the benefit of the environment, with little recognition of the consequences to food security or future regional development.
After researching his idea since the start of this year and speaking with engineers and water experts, he said it was possible to develop a desalination plant between Tathra and Eden before piping it to the lakes in the Snowy Mountains.
He said the benefits were obvious – increased environmental flows for the rivers, increased supply of water for the Snowy Hydro system, water for towns reliant on the river for survival, and increases in production of food and fodder crops.
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