•  Singaporean company is selling Australian water for $490m to Canadian fund
•  It comes as the tightest ever water restrictions are imposed on worried citizens
•  Olam is selling 89,085 megalitres of its permanent water rights in Australia

By ALISHA ROUSE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

DAILY MAIL UK 12 December 2019 |A multi-billion dollar Singaporean food company is selling 89,000 megalitres of Australian water to a Canadian pension fund.

The mega sale of Australian permanent water rights comes as the country is crippled by one of the worst droughts in its history.

On Tuesday, NSW brought in a complete ban on hoses as part of the toughest water restrictions implemented for more than a decade.

But no such problem existed for food and agriculture giant Olam International, which sold the 89billion litres of permanent water rights for an astonishing $490 million.

The company sold it to an entity associated with the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers, according to Straits Times.

It will use the water to irrigate almond trees, in a business venture likely to draw criticism over foreign ownership of farms and water.

The water rights are in the lower Murray-Darling Basin.

The chairman of the Victorian Farmers Federation’s water council, Richard Anderson, told the Sydney Morning Herald: ‘Really, all you’ve got is a change of ownership, it (the water) has gone from a Singapore-owned company to a Canadian pension fund…….

Water restrictions in Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Illawarra were upgraded to level two as dam levels in the region sank to just 45 per cent capacity, the lowest levels since the Millennium Drought took hold in 2003…..

The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a hot-than-usual summer, with no forecast for significant rain.

The sale is understood to be giving Olam a ‘one-time pre-tax capital gain of about $311 million’, the paper reported.

The agreement is for 25 years, with the option to renew for another 25.

In March, the government released its foreign ownership of water entitlement register, showing that investors from China and the US had the largest stake in Australia’s foreign-owned water entitlements.

It showed that one in 10 water entitlements is foreign owned.

A water entitlement is the right to an ongoing share of water, which can be sold by irrigators, companies or investors.

Acting as a property right, it gives access to an exclusive share of water from a water resource.

This is different to a water allocation, which is the right to access a volume of water for use or trade. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7780983/Foreign-company-sells-89-billion-litres-Australian-water-rights-490m-drought.html?fbclid=IwAR3wKbYP6OnXTEPhNoZiDeQ2Oj1o6uMzWUmkQSOgMxYjkZn6i0cJFj60Zo4&fbclid=IwAR3oHKAi9vQG4MctY4LMYNppX-pbY88hw0Zj4ACzypNTB_WI9nTtkc710bc