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Southern Rural Water release fresh vision for Gippsland

Southern Rural Water has unveiled its Macalister Fresh strategy, aiming to boost economic, environmental, and cultural benefits across Gippsland through innovative partnerships and climate resilience in irrigation areas.

By news@gippsland - 2nd July 2024 - Back to News

Southern Rural Water has released a vision for its region-building Macalister Fresh strategy to drive future investment and further economic, environmental and cultural benefits within Gippsland. The Macalister Fresh strategy focuses on a region which encompasses the Macalister Irrigation Area, Latrobe River and Avon River. The strategy's vision has been codesigned with Southern Rural Water's customers, government agencies, businesses, and community following extensive consultation done as part of its Macalister Fresh project strategy.

Macalister Fresh aims to bolster Gippsland's future through strategic water planning, leveraging decades of investment for enhanced irrigation efficiency and innovative solutions

Vision fosters innovation

The vision states that: 'the Macalister Fresh Irrigation area develops into a climate resilient Gippsland province with a shared ambition of innovation and partnerships that enable our community, region and environment to flourish.' Southern Rural Water Managing Director Cameron FitzGerald said including stakeholders in discussions from the start seeks to ensure that the vision is representative of the aspirations of the Gippsland community.

"Over the past six months we've run workshops and surveys to understand our stakeholder's aspirations for the future of irrigated agriculture in the Macalister Irrigation Area, the Latrobe River and Avon River areas. The vision we've created together underpins our Macalister Fresh strategy and crystallises the collective priorities of stakeholders to allow us to make decisions in line with what we all want to achieve for the region's thriving future," he said.

Macalister Fresh strategy

Delivering the vision marks a major milestone in the Macalister Fresh strategy timeline that will be delivered over 18-months in four phases. A stakeholder reference group has also been appointed recently to provide specialist advice, local knowledge, and technical support to Southern Rural Water to bring this vision to life.

The Macalister Fresh strategy will identify how to maximise the benefits of Southern Rural Water's multi-year multi-million-dollar modernisation program, deliver more water efficiencies, develop solutions to future challenges and attract further investment in Gippsland. Visit the Macalister Fresh project page to read the full vision report.

Pictures from Southern Rural Water website.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com