SA WATER has been slammed by the drought-gripped McLaren Vale wine industry over a 12-month delay in building the region a promised dam.
The South Australian water authority has been accused of mishandling the project to build a 700-megalitre storage site, which was promised to McLaren Vale in the 2007 federal election and funded by state and federal governments, the Adelaide Advertiser reports.
Former chairman of the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association Jock Harvey said: "With further water restrictions likely, we're heading from disaster to catastrophe because we're not viewed as important enough to spend $6 million on a dam that can save losses of $120 million annually."
Labor member for Mawson Leon Bignell said SA Water's handling of the project was a "disaster".
"It should have been finished now. South Australians have the right to know what SA Water is doing and if it is capable of running projects," he said.
Mr Harvey said that without vital water security, hundreds of wine industry jobs were placed at risk and many of the region's growers faced the prospect of abandoning their properties.
The region already is reeling from an estimated $30 million in lost fruit that could translate to about $120 million in lost wine sales as a result of February's heatwave.
The dam was promised to store reclaimed water as part of the the "Waterproofing the South" project, and would provide water to 50 per cent of the area's irrigators.
Mr Harvey said many of them have had their mains water allocation cut by 38 per cent and faced further cuts.
"We are gravely concerned (the dam) won't be built by September," he said. "It will affect dozens of growers and hundreds of jobs, possibly thousands."
Growers maintain the dam project should have been finished in February - at the very least before the start of the November irrigation season.
Mr Harvey said South Australian Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald indicated in a meeting in February, 2008, the project would take 12 months. But a spokeswoman for Ms Maywald denied this, saying it would be completed "on time" by the 2009/10 irrigation season.
Mr Harvey said the dam would reduce pollution to Gulf St Vincent, protect the grape and wine industries and return mains drinking water to the SA Water network.
Mr Bignell said he had been lobbying for 18 months to have the dam built and had written to Ms Maywald and Premier Mike Rann seeking answers.
The growers' association has been mobilising its members to lobby for assurances the dam will be filled by November. It says in a letter: "We are gravely concerned that the State Government and SA Water's current timeline for building the 700ML reclaimed water storage at Aldinga poses a grave risk to our livelihoods and the economy of the McLaren Vale region over the next 12 months."
SA Water said it had followed the same process undertaken with all major construction projects.
Chief operating officer John Ringham said in an email that a tender for the dam project was awarded last week and work started three days later.
