Watch Water inquiry calls for community impact statements

Water inquiry calls for community impact statements

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The long-awaited guide to the draft report into the management of the Murray Darling Basin will be released later today.

But ahead of that a senate inquiry has handed down its own report on water rights, calling on the Federal Government to make a community impact statement each time it buys water licences in the Murray Darling Basin.

The inquiry has also recommended the Government publish an annual report on infrastructure upgrades across the basin, detailing the costs of the programs, whether they're meeting their timeliness and how much water they're saving.

But one committee member says regardless of the inquiry's findings or this afternoon's report there'll never be a satisfactory management of the basin until there's a federal takeover.

From Canberra, Sabra Lane reports.

SABRA LANE: In August last year the Senate's Environment and Communications Committee started investigating the vexed issue of sustainable water management by the Federal Government.

It morphed into an inquiry about water management and water licences across the entire Murray Darling Basin.

The committee handed down its report late yesterday on the eve of the Murray Darling Basin Authority's draft guide to managing the basin. That report be released later today.

Coppied by http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s3032880.htm