North South Pipeline

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The Victorian Brumby Government is currently constructing a pipeline that will take water from the from Lake Eildon over a mountain range to Melbourne. The pipeline will be 75 km long and pump 75 billion litres of water every year.

The 75 billion litres of water is meant to come from water savings gained by updating the irrigation system downstream of Lake Eildon. These savings are meant to be shared between Melbourne, the irrigators and the environment. The catch for the irrigators and the environment is that Melbourne will start taking the water before any work on water savings is made. Even when all of the water saving measures are implemented it is highly unlikely that they will ever save the amount of water that is required. What else is irritating is that the Victorian Labour Government refused to sign the national water agreement that would have paid for improvements to the same irrigation system.

Melbourne will be taking water from one of the driest catchments and pumping it to its own catchment area which is one of the wettest. Country towns in the region have been on Stage 4 water restrictions for years while Melbourne is only on Stage 3a. Melbournes water storage currently stand at 39% and Lake Eildon is at 24% and falling fast. Many irrigators in the region have 0% water allocation and the most any are recieving is 29%.