Murray-Darling Basin Plan — Buying 2,075 GL/yr of Water Back for the River, With Mixed Ecological Results (Australia)

The Murray–Darling Basin Plan (2012, under the Water Act 2007) caps surface-water diversions and returns water to the environment through voluntary purchase of irrigators' entitlements and through funded efficiency projects. The Murray–Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder manage the recovered water.
Delivery: the MDBA reports contracted surface-water recovery towards "bridging the gap" of 2,073.1 GL/yr as at 30 June 2026, against a 2,075 GL/yr target (2,060.6 GL/yr was registered at 30 June 2025). The 2,075 GL figure is itself a reduction: the original recovery target was 2,750 GL/yr, changed by 2018 amendments conditional on measures to achieve outcomes with less water. Critics, for example in the Global Water Forum, argue that the cut reflected irrigator lobbying rather than best available science.
Outcomes: the MDBA's 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation finds evidence of improvement in many areas, including waterbird breeding in places such as Hattah and Narran Lakes, but says long-term outcomes are not yet evident across the whole Basin. The 2025 Sustainable Rivers Audit is more cautious: native fish expectedness was rated 'poor' in most valleys and recruitment 'poor' or 'very poor' across 19 valleys, and improved flow and connectivity have not yet significantly improved fish diversity.
Why it matters: a rare large-scale, legislated example of paying for water to stay in a river, with public progress reporting and independent evaluation. The lesson is that volumes recovered are an input metric; ecological recovery is slower, patchier and contested, and the target was weakened before delivery.

Read the full analysis: https://www.mdba.gov.au/water-use/water-environment/water-recovery/progress-water-recovery