It's something locals have known for years, and now a study has confirmed the NSW government lacked transparency and community consultation in the Menindee Lakes water saving project unveiled in 2018.
A paper published in the international scientific journal, Ecology & Society, outlines a lack of transparency in decision-making by the New South Wales government, accompanied by "virtual ignoring" of environmental data about its impact if implemented.
The plan was designed to negate the impact of water evaporation by sending water down river.
Lake Cawndilla would no longer be filled, while Lake Menindee — the largest in the system — would likely have been drained, with water retained in Pamamaroo and Wetherill instead.
The lack of public information was a shock to one of the report's authors, Professor Richard Kingsford.
"Alarmingly, we found very poor evidence that this was based on good scientific data," he said.
"There are a number of estimates for how much water might be saved; there was virtual ignoring of the environmental data."
Professor Kingsford, the director of the Centre of Ecosystem Science at UNSW, said there was research that was not included in the project calculations.
"Even some of their earlier studies, in which I was involved in leading, one of those was not even considered in terms of their planning," he said.
"There was lots of research out there that seemed to be ignored and, on top of that, very little public information on where the numbers were coming from in terms of water savings."
According to the government, the benefits of the scheme would have resulted in significant water savings of at least 100 gigalitres a year that is lost to evaporation.
But this has been disputed by researchers behind the study as well as a number of locals.
'Completely dismissing us'
Farmer Rachel Strachan lives downstream of the lakes, between Pooncarie and Wentworth, and was the vice-chair of the Stakeholder Advisory Committee.
She agreed with the study's findings, which highlighted a lack of meaningful community consultation with residents including traditional owners living along the Darling River.
"It felt like they were completely dismissing us and then we'd give feedback in the meetings and most of it they would have to take on notice and rarely did they get back to us," Ms Strachan said.
"I don't remember once where we were re-issued a report with what we felt was incorrectly stated in what the information we were providing."
'A dictatorship'
According to Ms Strachan, there were times when residents were only given days and sometimes hours to review information before upcoming meetings about the $151 million project.
"Even though they ticked the box on consultation, we don't believe it was consultation at all," she said.
"It was just a dictatorship of what they were wanting to push through and a complete disregard of the realities and the facts of what was happening."
But, in a statement to the ABC, NSW Minster for Lands and Water, Kevin Anderson, said community consultation was carried out.
"The NSW government always considers community consultation to be crucial when it comes to decisions impacting the Murray-Darling Basin," he said.
"Ministerial Council agreed in 2021 that NSW would work to re-scope the Menindee Lakes Water Savings project, which is now part of the Better Baaka program.
"It's aimed at improving water security while delivering economic, cultural, and environmental benefits for regional NSW."
But Ms Strachan believed events such as the recent flooding in Menindee, which swamped several homes, showed there was still a lack of community consultation going on today.
"[Water NSW] stated that it was an unusual event for the Tallywalka to return into the Darling River," she said.
"Every local and everyone especially around Wilcannia and Menindee knows that the Tallywalka in a big river always returns above [Lake] Wetherill and there's just the frustration of the arrogance of ignoring the local knowledge on the ground.
"It's just flabbergasting; it's beyond belief."
Environmental impacts
Lake Cawndilla, which was under the project would have been left empty, also plays an important role in the life cycle for golden perch — a factor that researchers believe was not adequately assessed.
The study incorporated 40 years of data on waterbirds in the area, which suggested populations had shrunk by 68 per cent.
Professor Kingsford attributed this to development upstream, contributing to less water coming down the Darling River.
"When you reduce the amount of habitat for things like waterbirds and native fish, then you're inevitably going to get those sorts of decline," he said.
Geoff Looney has been photographing and documenting bird species in Menindee since 1995.
He agreed that there had been fewer waterbirds travelling to the lakes in recent years.
"Large numbers of birds here has certainly dropped; places where you'd normally see birds every time and they just weren't there," he said.
"There's a small amount of them, but not like there were … hopefully they'll come back."
'They've gotta take notice'
Living on the shores of Lake Menindee, President of the Darling River Action Group Ross Leddra has seen the water come and go.
He was not shocked when he heard the results of the study.
"A surprise? No," he said.
"It was just satisfaction that everyone from all these reports and our group and others all came to the same conclusion."
He hoped the state government and water agencies would take on board the findings and change the way they consulted with the community, and the way water projects were developed with a more cooperative model that took on board feedback and knowledge from locals.
"They've gotta take notice of it … and we'll wait and see what sort of people we've got running the state," he said.
The appetite for change was shared by researchers.
"It really does need leadership from the government that's been lacking there in terms of the way the water agency has been essentially trying to put in an engineering solution for something that should have more of an environmental focus," Professor Kingsford said.
"The big catchcry that's been around for Menindee Lakes is that we're losing vast amounts of water to evaporation in that very dry climate.
"We have to get used to that this is natural that water comes into these lakes.
"There are natural lakes on the Paroo, for example, and other parts of the Darling where they produce an environmental benefit and it's the drying of those lakes over time gradually that's so important for many of those plants and animals."
NSW Environment Minister James Griffin has been contacted for comment.
