River Murray water allocations to open at 100 percent

South Australian River Murray irrigators are projected to receive their full water allocations in 2025-26.

The most recent advice provided by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, based on a ‘worst-case’ water availability projection, is that South Australia will receive an annual River Murray Entitlement above the minimum threshold for full allocations.

Availability of South Australia’s Entitlement is driven by storage levels upstream, which are considered average for this time of year.

Water availability within the shared resource is also expected to improve over the coming weeks as inflows from rain in the northern Basin reach the Menindee Lakes storages. It is highly likely that South Australia will receive its full annual Entitlement of 1,850 GL in 2025-26.

Department for Environment and Water Executive Director, Water and River Murray, Ms Sue Hutchings, said it was the fifth straight year that allocations would open at the full 100 per cent and should bring some reassurance to South Australian communities who rely on the River Murray for their water.

“Despite record low rainfall in some parts of South Australia, River Murray irrigators can go into another water year with the confidence of having full allocations available to them”, Ms Hutchings said.

As the projected minimum opening allocation is 100 percent, no more allocation announcements are scheduled for 2025-26. The volume of water available for allocation will be gazetted in mid-June 2025 and allocations issued for use from 1 July 2025.

Similarly, in line with the River Murray Water Allocation Plan, irrigators will not be eligible to carryover any unused allocation volumes into 2025-26, as the projected minimum opening allocation for 2025-26 is greater than 50 per cent.

For more information visit the Department for Environment and Water’s website and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority website.