Expert input into the environmental impacts of trade in the MDB

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) engaged Frontier Economics and Alluvium Consulting to provide expert input for its monitoring and evaluation program (MEP)for the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Under the Water Act, the MDBA is responsible for the Basin Plan for the integrated management of the Murray–Darling Basin’s water resources. This includes providing for ‘water to reach its most productive use through the development of an efficient water trading regime across the Murray-Darling Basin’ (Section 20e). The water trading rules must in turn contribute to water market and trading objectives and principles set out in Schedule 3 of the Act.

Alluvium provided advice on the impacts of trade on the environment and how water trading rules may impact both positively and negatively on key environmental assets and functions.