Government paying ‘eight times’ over market price for Murray-Darling water buyback, environment groups claim

Wagga Wagga beach on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. Environmental groups have criticised a government plan to fund irrigators to make water savings through efficiencies. Photograph: Gabrielle Jackson/The Guardian

Environmental groups have accused the federal government of paying a record price to retrieve water for the environment by funding irrigators to make savings through efficiencies.

The water minister, Keith Pitt, has announced the government will allocate $126m to Murrumbidgee Irrigation for works that it says will save just 7.4 gigalitres of water, and return 6.3 gigalitres to the environment.