| Water Trading | 
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What is water trading?
Just like you can buy and sell a home, you can buy and sell water.
However in some catchments such as the Murray Darling Basin, only existing water rights can be bought and sold in an effort to conserve our remaining water resource.
In other words, the sale of new water is no longer possible. This could be likened to building a new home. If no land was available, you would have no where to build and thus would have to buy an established home. It is this concept of buying new water that is no longer permitted.
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How is River Murray water traded?
Some water trading is instigated by word of mouth between irrigators but others irrigators register an interest with a water broker that they would like to sell.
Potential buyers are identified and then the water broker can set up the necessary transfer.
The trade of River Murray water is slightly different for each State. However, if the trade is across State borders the Murray-Darling Basin Commission must be notified and certain prerequisites must be met in the State of origin and State of receipt before respective State approvals and approval from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission is granted.
This approval process is necessary as water trade can have an influence on environmental conditions for the River if too much water is taken out of the system in the upper reaches.
If water is allowed to travel through the greater length of the river, this enables the maximisation of environmental benefits.
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How much does River Murray water cost?
All licenses in SA are for high security water.
However, in the upstream States there is a mixture of high and general security licenses. As the general security water has a higher risk that the total licensed allocation may not be available every year, these licenses may be bought and sold at a much lower and variable price in comparison with the high security licenses.
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Information
Murray-Darling Basin Commission
The Pilot Interstate Water Trading Project, Murray Darling Basin Commission
Booklets
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