ABOVE: Water Minister Tim Holding on 3AW Radio. Read the story below and leave a comment if you feel strongly about the issue.

Peter Ker, The Age: Melbourne may never need water from the controversial north-south pipeline, with a stocktake showing existing storages and minimal rainfall should easily supply the city beyond the start of the desalination plant next year.

The $750 million pipeline was built primarily to ensure Melbourne did not run out of water before the introduction of desalination in December 2011, but the latest water statistics show the 75 billion litres due through the pipe this year are surplus to requirements.

With more than 678 billion litres in storage, the city's dams have almost enough water sitting in them today to last the 713 days until the start of desalination.

The dams will continue to collect rainfall, and even if the record for poor dam inflows were matched in each of the next two years, Melbourne would still survive until the start of desalination with a buffer of nearly 300 days water supply.

The findings have prompted claims the pipeline water could be better used elsewhere, and created an conundrum for the Brumby Government over Melbourne's level of water restrictions.

The Government will consider relaxing Melbourne's water restrictions - and increasing consumption - before this year's state election, but would have to do so against a backdrop of taking 75 billion litres away from struggling northern Victoria through the pipeline.

Most of that 75 billion litres has not been saved in the foodbowl modernisation project, but will be sourced from the Wimmera-Mallee, Lake Eildon and other parts of the state's north.

The findings have united the traditional foes of water politics, with both environmental and farming groups agreeing there were now clearly better uses for the pipe water than merely topping up Melbourne's dams.

Analysis of Melbourne's water stocks show:

?Dams are today holding about 678 days' worth of water, based on the city's average daily consumption of about 1 billion litres. Daily winter consumption is slightly below a billion litres, summer consumption is slightly above.

?Despite perceptions there is a pool of unusable water at the bottom of dams, Melbourne Water confirms that every drop in the city's major dams can be accessed and drunk.

?The desalination plant is due to start supplying water in 713 days.

?Dams will continue to collect rainwater over those 713 days. The record low annual inflow to Melbourne's major dams was about 165 billion litres in 2006 - the equivalent to 165 days' consumption.

?If this record dry were repeated in both 2010 and 2011, current supplies would be boosted by about 330 days' worth of extra water. That scenario would still give Melbourne more than 1000 days of water to last the 713 days until desalination.

?Average dam inflows over the past decade have been much higher than the 2006 result, at 377 billion litres a year. If inflows were that strong in 2010 and 2011, Melbourne will have enough water to last several years beyond the start of desalination without using the north-south pipeline.

Australian Conservation Foundation spokeswoman Dr Arlene Buchan said water officials needed to be flexible and should make decisions based on the latest information.

''That 75 billion litres was guaranteed under 2007 thinking, but that thinking no longer applies. That 75 billion litres could be much better employed closer to where it comes from, where so much of the Murray-Darling Basin is desperate for water,'' she said.

Victorian Farmers Federation spokesman Richard Anderson agreed there was no need to turn on the north-south pipeline pumps in 2010.

''Just because you've got the infrastructure in place doesn't mean you have to use it,'' he said.

Mr Anderson said if Melbourne didn't need the pipe water, a better use would be to retain a robust water quality reserve in Lake Eildon - used, for example, to fight algal blooms - and possibly set up a system to give more water to struggling farmers on a lend-and-pay-back agreement.

''We still haven't got to 100 per cent of our water entitlements up here in the north,'' he said.

Melbourne Water said that with nearly 4 million people relying on the system, Melbourne's dams needed to have ''a healthy buffer of water in reserve'' and planning had to be focused on the medium and long term.

The Government rejected what it described as ''flawed'' methodology, with spokesman Shaun Inguanzo saying it was wrong to assume Melbourne's water supply was safe without the pipeline. ''Melburnians are now on some of the severest water restrictions anywhere in Victoria - indeed, restrictions are currently being eased across regional Victoria,'' he said.

''The Sugarloaf [north-south] pipeline is just one part of a broader plan to diversify Victoria's water sources and secure supplies against drought and climate change.''