One of the Northern Territory's largest water licences has been cut by 90 per cent, under the government's "use it or lose it" policy.
Taimatsu Australia — a Malaysian-owned company — was granted a licence to extract 13,896 megalitres of groundwater a year from Jindare Station near Pine Creek in 2016.
In its application for the licence, 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 licence to 1,389 megalitres.
Taimatsu was one of several licence holders across the Douglas Daly, Katherine and Mataranka regions to have its allocation reduced by the department in the last six months.
"We do have a natural justice process with those licence holders to check about what their plans are and what's changed," DEPWS executive director of water resources Amy Dysart said.
"But if there's not good justification for how they are going to use that water, then we want to return it."
Taimatsu did not respond to ABC Rural's request for comment.
Parts of Oolloo aquifer still over-allocated
The Oolloo Water Allocation Plan (WAP) area is one of the most intensively used aquifer systems in the NT, with almost 40 licence holders taking water.
Despite water being cut from some users, the northern management zone of the Oolloo WAP area is currently over-allocated.
According to the DEPWS website, the total amount granted to licence holders is 766 megalitres more than the estimated sustainable yield of the aquifer.
The estimated sustainable yield is the amount that can be taken without impacting environmental flows in the aquifer.
However, it appears most water licence holders are only using around a third of their entitlements.
According to NT Water Controller Joanne Townsend, only around 35 per cent of the total licensed water was used in the 2021-2022 water accounting year.
"On the basis of reported water use, there is low likelihood the maximum extraction of licensed entitlements will occur in the 2022-23 water year, due [to] the slow nature of development and water extraction infrastructure to utilise full licensed entitlements," Ms Townsend wrote.
Water is available for application in the two other management zones in the Oolloo.
More than 14,000 megalitres is available for use under the Aboriginal Water Reserve, while 7,661 megalitres is available in the general consumptive pool.
Other licence holders warned
DEPWS has warned licence holders that it will continue to assess whether they should be able to keep their entitlements.
"Licence 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," Ms Dysart said.
"We will be having those conversations with all of our licence holders — and we have 600 of them — so we can make sure we have that balance between water allocation and ... economic development of the Northern Territory."
