Snowy backflip a victory for the community and the environment

Saturday, 03 June 2006 00:14

TEC Director Jeff Angel said “The proposed Snowy sale came at a crucial time for the future of the Snowy River and placed in jeopardy the future of environmental flows needed to restore the iconic river. A strong campaign by a wide range of environment and community organisations has forced a rethink by the governments involved”.

Following the Snowy Water Inquiry in 1998 a package of staged environmental flows to restore the health of the Snowy River was agreed by the NSW, Victorian and Federal Governments. There were serious concerns that privatisation would see this package threatened as the quest for profit overwhelmed environmental concerns.

“Public ownership of Snowy Hydro means that the governments can be kept accountable for their commitments to environmental flows. It would have been much harder to ensure that a private company delivered the environmental flows needed to return the river to health”, Mr Angel said.

With the governments having responded to public concerns over the sale of Snowy Hydro, TEC has called on them to also listen to calls to restore environmental flows to the Mowamba River, a crucial tributary of the Snowy River.

“Environmental flows were restored to the Mowamba River downstream in 2002 amid much fanfare by the NSW and Victorian Governments. In the lead up to the proposed sale, however, this flow was switched off and the water diverted into Jindabyne Dam in an effort to boost the value of the scheme. With a sale now off the agenda the governments should immediately return this crucial flow to the Mowamba and Snowy Rivers”, Mr Angel said.