Murray-Darling Cap
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The Murray-Darling Cap is a policy limiting the water diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin (Australia) at 1993 levels. It seeks to strike a balance between the amount of water available to irrigators and the security of their water supply. At the time of conception (1997) the level of diversions from the basin was clearly nearing unsustainable levels.
The Murray-Darling system is a highly variable system in terms of inflows and can vary between discharges of 1600 Gigalitres (GL) and 53,000 GL, with a long term average of 12400 GL. The Cap limits surface water diversions at 11,000 GL. The aim of the cap is: "To ensure the long-term health of the rivers by returning more water to the river for environmental purposes". The Cap effects all rivers located within the Murray-Darling Basin. As it was implemented in 1997 but capped at 1993 levels the irrigators lost an amount of water. The cap made water in the basin a more valuable resource and gave entitlements to its diversion more value and saw increased trade in these entitlements.
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