After the lowest inflows on record for the first four months of the year, and with the Southern Oscillation Index dipping ominously into the negative – a portent of another El Nino drought – irrigators are bracing for their toughest season since the 2006-07 El Nino year.

This morning’s water-outlook forum, involving speakers from Goulburn-Murray Water, Lower Murray Water, and Western Murray Irrigation, will be held in the Sierra Lounge of the Mildura Workingman’s Club

Irrigators on the Victorian side of the river are dwelling on good falls over the Murray-Goulburn catchments to produce sufficient inflows into the Hume and Dartmouth dams to generate the conveyancing flow needed to deliver water for critical human needs, and their own carryover supplies, bought recently in the expectation that any high-security water allocations will not be delivered before mid-October, at the earliest.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Wednesday’s Sunraysia Daily 20/05/2009.