ABC water humour

Drought and the state of the Murray Darling Basin are not usually funny.

But city journalists, and Canberra water regulator stupidity can give you a smile.

If you are a farmer with a pipe;
one end is in the river,
the other end of the pipe is on your pasture/crop/trees/troughs.

Goodness me, what could go wrong here?

The water is measured by an aptly named Water Wheel which rotates when water passes through.
No rotation, no water flow - OK.

Except you can jam a stick in the wheel to stop it.

So far into folklore there is a phrase for it:
"Spragging the Wheel"

Seems billions of litres are missing.