The North Central Catchment Management Authority (CMA) wants to hear from irrigators about the impacts of both weeds and fish being sucked through their pumps.

“It is estimated that tens of thousands of fish could be lost to irrigation pumps across Victoria each year,” North Central CMA Acting Project Manager Amy Russell said.

“I have also heard from irrigators who are getting up several times during the night to remove weeds from their pumps.

“The great news is there is a solution to this problem, and it’s being made here locally. The solution is pump screens, which are currently being used around the world.

“The potential for this solution to save irrigators time and money, as well as improving native fish populations is really exciting.”

Cohuna company AWMA Water Control Solutions has developed a product to help with  the problem.

“We know the pump screens work, and we want to work with local irrigators to gain a bit of more an insight to what is actually happening to pumps without screens,” Ms Russell said.

“The North Central CMA is achieving fantastic results with our flows designed to increase numbers of native fish, but there are still a number of issues to do with fish passage that need to be addressed.

“One of these is that fish are being caught up in irrigation pumps.”

Ms Russell said she wanted to hear stories from local irrigators about weed build up and fish being caught in pumps.

“We know it’s a problem, and we want people to tell us how big a problem it is,” she said.

“I am hoping the local community can help me out by sending through any photos, stories or evidence on the impact of the pumps in the Gunbower Creek and Little Murray River.

"This sort of infrastructure is a Victorian first, and if you would like to be a part of the project and have any information that would be useful you can send it through to amy.russell@nccma.vic.gov.au or phone 03 5448 7124.”