One of the Northern Territory's largest water licenses has been cut by 90 per cent. Taimatsu Australia, a Malaysian-owned company, was granted a license to extract 13,896 megalitres of groundwater a year from Jindare Station near Pine Creek in 2016. In its application for the license, Taimatsu said it would use the water on a large-scale irrigation project, growing fodder crops, Indian sandalwood, melons, ginger, onions and sweet potatoes.
But after the company failed to follow through with its development plans, the NT Department of Environment (DEPWS) cut Taimatsu's water license to 1,389 megalitres. As such, Taimatsu was one of several license holders across the Douglas Daly, Katherine and Mataranka regions to have its allocation reduced by the department in the last six months.
DEPWS has warned license holders that it will continue to assess whether they should be able to keep their entitlements. "License holders should be thinking about their development plans, how much water they're using and what they will require in the next couple of years," DEPWS executive director of water resources Amy Dysart said.
Source: abc.net.au