Entitlements and Allocations

The following letter was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 9th. December, 2011:
"The focus on the 2750 gigalitre (GLS) figure of claimed water "returned to the rivers" is highly misleading. This number refers to extraction entitlements.  Irrigation entitlements grant the right to extract water only when when seasonal allocations are made and this depends on water availability. When water is short there are no, or very limited, allocations. Water entitlements without allocations amount to phantom water. During the Millennium Drought extraction entitlements were cut by over 4,000 GLS by the allocation system-it works rather well." (Buying irrigation entitlements will do nothing for our rivers and will only limit agricultural production when water is plentiful.)
(  ) Omitted by Letters Editor