Socio Economic
It is critical to understand and assess socio-economic outcomes from water reform. This includes not only farmers and the agricultural sector, but the communities who rely upon irrigated agriculture.
Water reforms which reduce the availability and affordability of water for irrigation have significant flow-on or ripple effects across communities. Less water for farming flows through local communities to mean less local employment, decreased expenditure at local businesses, less children at schools and thus less teachers, less services within communities (such as access to healthcare), and less participants to form local sporting clubs. This is known in economics as the 'multiplier effect'.
The below resources provide key information on socio-economic impact assessment from water reforms.
Government and independent research
MDBA Southern Basin community profiles
The MDBA developed community profiles as part of the 2017 Basin Plan Evaluation for:
- 40 irrigation-dependent communities
- five communities with little or no irrigated agriculture
- the centres of Deniliquin and Shepparton-Mooroopna.
Northern Basin Review – technical overview of the social and economic analysis
This report focuses on 21 communities in the northern Basin, recognising water recovery affects individual communities in different ways.
Independent assessment of social and economic conditions in the Murray–Darling Basin
The assessment panel included Chair Robbie Sefton, Andrew Kassebaum, David McKenzie, Dr Deborah Peterson, Michelle Ramsay, Bruce Simpson and Rene Woods, who met with 750 people in communities, received more than 70 submissions to the draft report and commissioned extensive social and economic research.
