Large-scale water theft is emerging as a potential threat to Canberra's plans for a drought-proof future, according to the ACT Government.
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The territory's water utility Actew is looking for ways to protect dozens of megalitres of water, which it plans to buy from NSW in dry years, from being stolen before it reaches the ACT border.
The water will be released from the Tantangara Dam in the Snowy Mountains and pumped into the Googong Reservoir through the $120million pipeline currently under construction from Angle Crossing on the ACT-NSW border into the Googong system.
But Actew has conceded that it must first find a way to prevent ''unlawful take'' as the water winds its way through more than 150km of the Murrumbidgee River between Tantangara and the ACT.
Landholders along the ''unregulated'' upper Murrumbidgee may be forced by the NSW Government to accept metering and monitoring arrangements on their land under a deal being negotiated by the two jurisdictions.
Actew says the extractions from the Murrumbidgee would only be made in drought years, the very conditions that might tempt unauthorised users to illegally extract water from the system.
Negotiations for the deal between Actew, the NSW Government and Snowy Hydro Ltd include security measures to keep the territory's water safe as it flows from the mountains to the border.
A spokeswoman for acting ACT Water Minister Andrew Barr said, ''The ACT and NSW governments are working to develop the arrangements that would ensure the physical transfer and security of the conveyance of water along the upper Murrumbidgee River from Tantangera Dam to the ACT border at Angle Crossing.''
The talks would have to devise ways to ''enforce relevant compliance measures to prevent unlawful take of water released for Actew's use between Tantangera Dam and the ACT border and metering and monitoring water extractions by parties along the river to ensure passage of the water released from Tantangara Dam''.
Actew is also pushing for the right to ''construct works to measure the flow of water in the unregulated Murrumbidgee River in NSW if required and enforce relevant compliance measures to prevent unlawful take of water released for Actew's use between Tantangara Dam and the ACT border''. But National Irrigators Council chief executive Tom Chesson said a revolt by irrigators along the Murrumbidgee against the security clampdown was unlikely. But irrigators in the Murray-Darling basin were irritated by the ACT's role in the latest draft plan for the basin's management. ''Where we do have an issue is the fact that Canberra, the ACT, is not giving up one megalitre under the Murray-Darling basin draft plan, despite the fact that they're building a brand new dam,'' he said.
''Everyone up and down the river is taking a haircut to provide environmental flows, except Canberra.''
This reporter is on Twitter: @noeltowell