The Murray-Darling Plan involves a huge waste of water and money

In central, northern, and western NSW and south west Queensland dams/irrigation cannot be blamed for the current state of the rivers because the dams are largely empty and irrigation from river water has been minimal for a couple of years.

During most summers, the Darling River typically dries back to a series of deep waterholes. Similarly, the lakes at Menindee and on the Great Darling Anabranch dry up for many years between floods. The Darling River at Menindee ceased to flow 48 times between 1885 and 1960, and the river did not flow for 364 days in the 1902–3 drought. Most of the other creeks and rivers on the plains in the far west of NSW are also ephemeral.

The Menindee Lakes are a natural, shallow, short-lived system fed by the Darling, which were engineered into a regulated water storage system in the 1960s. Their total storage volume is 1,731 GL, and they may lose up to up to 700 GL a year in evaporation. Heavy winter rains flooded the Menindee Lakes in 2016, and large flows of Menindee water were released downstream in 2017.

Many Lower Darling residents blamed the Basin Authority for releasing this water, arguing that, had it been held back, the 2019 fish kills might have been avoided. The reality, however, is that the claim has very limited basis because, had the water not been released, it would have mostly evaporated by now anyway. The fish kills at Menindee were an inevitable effect of the drought, and further kills in the Darling are likely this summer in the absence of good rain.

The Macquarie River had not run dry since Burrendong Dam was built in the 1960s but has now stopped flowing to the marshes. The last significant water inflows into the (200,000 hectare) Macquarie Marshes (one of the largest remaining semi-permanent wetland systems in inland Australia) occurred in December 2018, and there's been no significant rain in the catchment since. The marshes are now bone dry (which happens periodically) and last month experienced large bushfires (historically not uncommon). Estimates suggest 90 per cent of the wetland's main reed bed has been razed by the fires.

In 2018 (in the middle of one of the worst droughts in recorded history) 132,000ML of water for the environment was delivered into the Macquarie River from Lake Burrendong. It only succeeded is postponing the eventual drying out of the marshes, which experience extreme evaporation levels.

Those inland rivers in NSW still flowing despite drought in their catchments are in fact, for the most part, those fed through controlled flows from large irrigation dams (e.g. Wyangala, Burrinjuck, Blowering). Much of their water is used downstream for irrigation and town water.

The Namoi system is one of the systems most devastated by the drought, and without stored water in Keepit Dam, the river would have run dry much sooner. Because of the releases from Keepit Dam over the last two years, the flow in the system has been three times what would have occurred under natural conditions.

In Queensland, because the bulk of Cubbie's water licences are high-flow licences. Cubbie (and smaller irrigators in SW Queensland) can only begin storage when rivers are in flood and above a certain height. Cubbie's storages are currently empty, and Cubbie has not harvested crops for two years. The station has no effect on Darling River flows during a drought.

Overall, and counter to popular opinion, the presence of large river dams does not reduce river flows during a severe drought. The severe drought itself is the culprit for current low flows. Dams actually protect river flows in drought years through regulated water releases, though stored water can eventually run out.

City Australians (commonly due to misinformation) are often hostile to irrigation from river systems, and often (unrealistically) blame the presence of irrigation dams for inland rivers and creeks not flowing continuously. The reality in inland Australia is that, even on the higher rainfall tablelands, most creeks do not flow year round and a "permanent" creek is one that merely has year-round waterholes (sometimes spring fed). It is claimed (including by greenies dressed up as "scientists") that the building of dams for irrigation has caused thelong-term ecological decline of rivers, wetlands and floodplains. A more realistic assessment is that such dams mitigate major flooding in very wet years and provide a source of more assured flows and income from irrigated agriculture for long periods during dry spells.

The Basin Plan is supposed to be a $13 billion reform to reset the balance between environmental and consumptive use of water and to establish a new sustainable water management system. According to the Productivity Commission about $6.7 billion has been spent to recover about 2000 gigalitres from farmers. Each year, South Australia (SA) is entitled to receive up to a maximum of 1850 GL, depending on the water availability. This does not include water that would flow to SA during floods or as a result of trades and environmental watering actions. According to the SA EPA, SA's total water consumption (excluding evaporation losses) is just 1000GL a year, of which agriculture consumes three-quarters.