Barilaro calls on South Australia to allow sea water back into Lake Alexandrina

Barilaro calls on South Australia to allow sea water back into Lake Alexandrina

NSW Deputy Premier and Nationals Leader John Barilaro has called on South Australia to implement a “no-regrets” trigger point to open the barrages on the Lower Lakes and allow seawater back into Lake Alexandrina.

Mr Barilaro said South Australia has sat back and watched as NSW has made tough decisions to keep the Murray Darling Basin Plan alive, often at great cost to regional communities in NSW.

“We continue to ask communities to hold the line on the Murray Darling Basin Plan even as we endure one of the most severe droughts on record,” Mr Barilaro said.

“As we have seen elsewhere in NSW the current climatic regime (record low inflows couple with record high temperatures) has delivered new ‘worst conditions’ in a number of valleys - some far worse than previous records.

“South Australia can no longer stay silent and bat away reasonable claims for them to pull their weight given the current water shortage in the Murray Darling Basin.

“South Australia needs to address the elephant in the room, sitting obnoxiously at the southern mouth of the Murray – the Lower Lakes.

“The drought in NSW should act as a wake-up call to South Australia. They need to implement a ‘no-regrets’ trigger point to open the barrages on the lower lakes and allow sea water back into Lake Alexandrina,” he said.

Back in February, The Weekly Times revealed that South Australia was holding back their own environmental water to facilitate a yacht regatta.