The Connections project is now expected to be completed in 2020, two years after the original deadline, according to Water Minister Lisa Neville.
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Ms Neville said an extension of time was part of the reset of the project.
The preferred option for the reset, suggested by the Connections Project Control Group (PCG), would now be put before irrigators, in a series of meetings.
“It involves a channel by channel assessment, that is being done on 1200 channels, not on the current backbone, that will enable them to look at the individual treatments, for each channel,” Ms Neville said.
“It will give the best benefits for the landholders and the project as a whole and a region, rather than a one size fits all.”
Ms Neville revealed $388 million of uncommitted funding was left to deliver 110 gigalitres of water savings and fully modernise the network.
Reset options included:
- Prioritising the connection works on channels that provided the lowest connection cost per primary producer.
- All outlets associated with Water Use Licences with an average annual use over the last three years in excess of 100ML (based on entire WUL, not per outlet), to be upgraded. After completing all outlet upgrades for high use WULs, remaining funds would be used to target connections works on those channels that experienced the greatest loss.
- Works would be targeted at the channels across the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID) that experienced the greatest water loss.
The fourth option was a combination of all the others, where individual connections would be tailored explicitly for the conditions and attributes of each channel.
Ms Neville said 3600 landholders were already connected and the PCG would be working with those who had been waiting the longest, to have upgrades completed.
She said there had never been an overall system and plan, when the project was moved to Goulburn-Murray Water.
“This has been a major issue, in my view, moving it was always going to fail,” Ms Neville said.
“This is a massive delivery project, you would never put out a $2billion road project, just to VicRoads, you would put it out to the market to get the best people, with the best skills, to deliver it.”
She said the main issue facing irrigators was what they were getting, and when.
