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

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.