ETHERIDGE mayor Will Atwood is among those doing his sums in the wake of the state government release of an amended Gulf Water Resource Plan, and is wondering how "five and five will add up to four".
"Everyone has been ringing and asking how all the demand will fit into the amount of water released," Cr Atwood said. "I'm having a teleconference with the minister on Friday and I hope to have more answers after that."
Under amendments to the plan, 467,000 megalitres of unallocated water has been released for the Gilbert River catchment.
In addition, the Gilbert River catchment reserves won't be made available until after the environmental impact assessment process for the proposed Integrated Food and Energy Development project has been completed.
"IFED have a proposal for a water storage of 2000GL that they've somehow got to fill, then they want an average of 500ML a year," Cr Atwood said.
"Then there's other groups along the Gilbert River that have vegetation management clearing permits that might tender - that's an unknown amount. Plus Strathmore want an amount. I'm not sure how it will work."
Cr Atwood said the announcement of further releases of water on the whole was welcome.
"It opens up huge opportunities," he said. "The CSIRO study identified very fertile land in the region that's capable of growing many crops, especially for the Asian market. Now there's an opportunity for people to move into this area of cropping."
