Irrigators will begin the 2009-2010 water year on July 1 with a 2 per cent opening allocation and access to 60pc of their approved carry-over water volume.
River Murray Minister Karlene Maywald said that while drought conditions across the Murray Darling Basin remain extremely serious, South Australia has been able to secure enough water to make a small opening allocation possible.
"Inflow conditions since last December have continued at historically low levels, but improved slightly last month as a result of widespread rainfall in late April," she said.
The inflow for May 2009 was 90 gigalitres, which is 60gL higher than the minimum of 30gL used for planning purposes.
Overall, River Murray system inflows during 2008-09 were the third driest in 118 years of records.
From June 1, 2008, to May 31, 2009, inflows to the River Murray system were only 1860gL, compared with the long-term average for this period of 8830gL.
River Murray storages remain very low.
The current volume in the Hume, Dartmouth, Menindee Lakes and Lake Victoria is 1475gL (16pc capacity), compared with the long-term average of about 5500gL (59pc capacity).
At the same time last year, storages were at 1986gL (21pc capacity).
* More local water news in Stock Journal, June 18 issue.
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