Last week Coliban Water said the opening of its rural irrigation season in September would offer zero in allocations. Managing director Gavin Hanlon warned that catchments are so depleted, Coliban Water will not be able to make allocations for permanent plantings or intensive animal husbandry.

But, he said, the water authority will reassess the situation on a weekly basis. Harcourt Growers Association president Trevor Peeler said keeping water up to trees in the fruiting season through October and November would prove critical to many farmers’ survival. ‘‘Although it has rained, it really hasn’t helped our kind of farming because we rely on the storages, and they have had minimal inflows,’’ Mr Peeler said.

‘‘I would say, without any water allocations, a fair percentage of the industry will go under within a single year - and that would devastate Harcourt.’’ He said the $20 million fruit industry in the valley had suffered from successive dry years.

Even this year’s 35 per cent allocation - the best in years - had left many with accumulated farm debts.

Mr Peeler said growers had pruned trees heavily in expectation of low water availability and to minimise water stress.

But, he said, some are down to their last orchards of good trees.

‘‘We have to plan for a worst-case scenario, but we are just hoping we get sufficient water to keep our trees alive,’’ he said.

In 2006-07, Coliban Water installed temporary piping to prevent evaporation, and delivered water to priority customers. The authority now intends replacing this with a permanent system, but the problem remains of finding the reserves to supply growers.

Coliban Water storages have just crept above 14 per cent, still less than August 2006.

The Harcourt Valley is not connected to the Superpipe and, despite supply exceeding demand, Coliban Water does not yet have the infrastructure to supply Harcourt growers with recycled water from Bendigo.

A $17 million project to pipe recycled water either from Castlemaine or Spring Gully was knocked back by the Essential Services Commission. Mr Hanlon said Coliban Water would seek to expedite $7 million, earmarked to improve water security and to set up a special committee for Harcourt.