Lower Murray Water customer service general manager Owen Russell yesterday said the deluge of wild weather experienced across much of Victoria since Friday had poured into catchments across the state, which would likely see substantial flow-on effects for Sunraysia irrigators.

“What we would expect for our irrigators is that the next allocation announcement (next Wednesday) will see some sharp rises in water allocation,” he said.

With current water allocations now at 57 per cent, Mr Russell said the heavy rainfalls had streamed into the Upper Murray catchment and flowed into the key storage areas of the Dartmouth and Hume dams.

“This is the best we’ve seen the catchment in the past decade,” he said.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Tuesday’s Sunraysia Daily 07/09/2010.