'The river is sick': NSW urged to halt floodplain harvesting in Murray-Darling

Giving irrigators a licence to divert huge volumes of water is a recipe for disaster, opponents say

Aboriginal groups, graziers, environmental groups and the former commonwealth environmental water holder have urged the New South Wales water minister to halt a controversial move to allow Murray-Darling irrigators to "harvest" overland flows after rain events.

Known as "floodplain harvesting" the practice has been unregulated and unmonitored in NSW, but is now diverting huge volumes of water in the northern basin of the Murray-Darling system into irrigation storages.