Politics & Council
1 July, 2023
Water release needs better flow: inquiry told
BETTER management of water release and flows along the Loddon River were needed, a Salisbury West landowner has told the Victorian Parliament inquiry into October’s flood emergency. Sonja James’ submission is one of 200 already listed for...
BETTER management of water release and flows along the Loddon River were needed, a Salisbury West landowner has told the Victorian Parliament inquiry into October’s flood emergency.
Sonja James’ submission is one of 200 already listed for consideration by the Legislative Council’s environment and planning committee.
Mrs James said this week that because she and husband Neil did not have a permanent dwelling on the property, they didn’t receive an alert from Goulburn Murray Water. She said they had instead relied on information from neighbours.
Mrs James said: “Seven days before it came up and a moderate flood, then the river was back down for a week and then water came at once and that’s what did the damage on our property.”
In her submission, Mrs James has said their two-bedroom unit and shipping containers were destroyed in the flood along with fences on their 50-hectare property. “I searched for answers as I had a lot of questions. Why wasn’t there more water coming down the river before the flood?
“I don’t doubt there would have been a flood I just don’t think it should have been as severe (if only there was a strategic plan involved).
“Hence my submission, we must learn by this and find a better way,” Mrs James has told the inquiry.
“But to learn by it we need to know what happened, what went wrong.
“Please find out why this happened and don’t blame the rain event in the top of the catchment.
“That could have been managed by having air space in the reservoirs or letting water go prior.
“If we are going to have these reservoirs and we need them, then let’s better manage them,” Mrs James has said in her submission.
“Let’s use those monitoring stations up the catchment, let’s better prepare, let manage the system better, because can we really afford another event like this in the near future?