IT WAS a sad Easter holiday for the businesses around the Menindee Lakes in Far Western NSW - like a ghost town this year because of the lack of water in the lakes.
Only a year ago, hundreds of tourists and holidaymakers flocked to the region to camp, fish, and ski, among many other water activities.
Caravans, cars and tents would normally be bumper-to-bumper and thousands of dollars injected into the local economy, and tourist buses would arrive one after the other to take in the vast array of wildlife, landscapes and magical sunsets.
But not this year.
Anyone who arrived in the region for the festivities was confronted by the sight of dried-up lake beds and dusty, severely corrugated roads.
The Menindee Lakes system is now at four per cent capacity (75 gigalitres), with the main lakes either dry or very close to dry, while Broken Hill's only town water supply at Copi Hollow continues to increase in salinity, currently at 1148EC.
Inflow to Menindee Lakes from the Darling River system during March 2015 was less than 10gL - well below the March long-term average of 190gL.
Recent rainfall has given Broken Hill's supply a reprieve until autumn, 2016, but communities around the lakes, such as Menindee and Sunset Strip, are being kept in the dark about the future of the lakes.
Menindee Lakes Caravan Park managers Tim and Sammie Walter lost about 90pc of their Easter trade.
Mr Walter is on the Menindee Community Consultative Committee - tasked with finding long-term solutions for the far west's water supply - but feels he is not being heard.
"There have been so many studies done already by universities and geologists - they stay at our caravan park - but they keep wasting money on new studies and not taking any action," he said.
"We have an opportunity now here to fix the lakes while it is dry. They need to put in regulators to better manage flows for a start."
Mr Walter believes that is how the Menindee Lakes got into this mess - the mismanagement of flows between the Darling River and the lakes.
"In December 2013, the Menindee Lakes were full (1731gL), as were the Darling and Murray rivers," he said.
"Yet for some reason, the Murray-Darling Basin Authority decided to drain the lakes 'for irrigation entitlements in SA', even though the Murray was full to the brim. Most of that water went straight out to sea.
"They talk about 'use it or lose it', but this is about the environment.
"They also talk about evaporation like it's a dirty word - but past rainfall records show that totals go up when the lakes have water in them. Evaporation creates rain.
"When the lakes were full, we used to watch storm-after-storm come through. Now, the storms bypass the lakes, because they're so dry.
"We are going to need a very big flood for this system to recover."
Mr Walter also believes the way the water is drained from the lakes needs to be reviewed.
"We understand it can fill up and be drained down, but not to this extent where it's dried out completely," he said.
"When the Millennium Drought was on, we still had eight years of water supply up our sleeve, and Lake Wetherell was always full.
"This time it was only a matter of months before the system was in trouble. The government hasn't managed the flows properly.
"We need to address how and why this has happened, so we can stop it happening again."
Between October 2013, and mid-February 2014, the MDBA released 180gL to meet minimum-flow requirements in the Lower Darling and to deliver an order of 144gL in downstream demand in the Murray.
At the same time, the MDBA said about 405gL evaporated from the Menindee Lakes system and NSW released about 135gL for local irrigation use and flows to the Great Darling Anabranch.
"The combined use of water in this period meant that on February 18, 2014, the 480gL trigger was reached and Menindee Lakes could no longer be shared as a source of flows to the Murray," a statement from the MDBA said.
A spokesperson from the MDBA said any management questions about the Menindee Lakes were now a matter for the NSW government.
"Together with the other basin governments, they have set the rules about how and when the water in storage can be used," the spokesperson said. "It's not up to the MDBA to change the rules".
"The water that was released from the Menindee storage (in late 2013) to the River Murray was the water that the NSW government agreed to share with Vic and SA."
NSW Department of Primary Industries general water deputy director Gavin Hanlon said since taking over control, a number of contingency measures had been put in place to address the increasing water shortage, including water restrictions upstream and now the cessation of flows to the Lower Darling at the end of April.
"However a number of factors have contributed to the critical water supply issues that have developed," he said.
"Probably the greatest influencing factor has been the unusually hotter, drier conditions and lower system inflows over the past three years."
New NSW Primary Industries, Lands & Water minister Niall Blair was at Broken Hill last week to assess the water situation at the Menindee Lakes and the progress of bore-water testing in the region.
"The government are investing nearly half a billion dollars to determine the best short and long-term solutions for Broken Hill's water security," a statement from the Minister's office said.
"As with many towns in western NSW, the use of bore water is considered an important component for securing a town's water supply.
"We are also progressing investigations for a pipeline from the Murray River to Broken Hill, as part of the long-term solution."
But the bore water solution has been met with strong opposition, particularly from local residents and the Broken Hill/Menindee Lakes We Want Action group.
More in Stock Journal next week.