Salmon Gums water deficiency declaration welcomed, Duncan
Author: Wendy Duncan
Published on: 15-June-2011
Mining and Pastoral MLC Wendy Duncan has welcomed the recognition of the Salmon Gums area as one which is livestock water deficient.
The rain starved area was officially tagged as water deficient by Water Minister Bill Marmion yesterday, enabling farmers to access State Government assistance in terms of water cartage to supply livestock.
The declaration was made in the wake of an assessment of the area’s water needs by the Department of Water and the Department of Agriculture and Food (WA), and was a move urged by Mrs Duncan earlier in the year when the lack of run-off rains triggered concerns about the amount of available water for livestock.
“The declaration will enable farmers to access water which will be carted to the Quarry Dam, which has been depleted as farmers have been carting water for stock for some time.”
Water from Water Corporation standpipes will be used to replenish the Quarry Dam.
Ms Duncan said that as farmers looked to the sky in the hope of decent winter rains, it was important that they were able to access emergency water supplies when the need arose.
She agreed with Minister Marmion when he said that the State Government encouraged all dryland farmers to look at their water capture and containment systems to make sure they were able to catch as much rain as possible.
Ms Duncan added that in seasons when rain simply did not provide run-off, farmers had to have access to adequate on-farm storage, and in the event that such sources were depleted, they needed access to Government sponsored emergency supplies like the Quarry Dam.
“While emergency supplies may relieve short term hardship and winter rains may solve the problem for a season, in the long term we need to be looking at innovative ways of improving sustainable and reliable water supplies for small inland communities and farming areas like Salmon Gums.”
