Water Act 2007

Without limiting section 21, the Basin Plan must be prepared having regard to the fact that the Commonwealth and the Basin States have agreed:

that critical human water needs are the highest priority water use for communities who are dependent on Basin water resources; and

in particular that, to give effect to this priority in the River Murray System, conveyance water will receive first priority from the water available in the system.

Critical human water needs are the needs for a minimum amount of water, that can only reasonably be provided from Basin water resources, required to meet:

core human consumption requirements in urban and rural areas; and

those non‑human consumption requirements that a failure to meet would cause prohibitively high social, economic or national security costs.

The River Murray System is the aggregate of:

the main course of the River Murray upstream of the eastern boundary of South Australia; and

all tributaries entering that part of the main course upstream of Doctors Point (near Albury); and

all effluents and anabranches of that part of the main course; and

the watercourses connecting Lake Victoria to the main course; and

the Darling River downstream of the Menindee Lakes Storage; and

the upper River Murray storages, namely:

Lake Victoria; and

the Menindee Lakes Storage; and

the storages formed by Dartmouth Dam and Hume Dam; and

the storages formed by the weirs, and weirs and locks, described in Schedule A to the Agreement that are upstream of the eastern boundary of South Australia; and

the River Murray in South Australia.

Conveyance water is water in the River Murray System required to deliver water to meet critical human water needs as far downstream as Wellington in South Australia.