The Tooma Reservoir, part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, captures water in the headwaters of the Tooma River, and diverts some of the water to the Tumut Pondage on the Tumut River, where the water is used to generate electricity in the sequence of hydro-electric power stations along the length of the Tumut River. This diversion results in a transfer of water from the Murray River catchment (which includes the Tooma River), to the Murrumbidgee River catchment (which includes the Tumut River). However, a compensating opposite transfer from the Murrumbidgee to the Murray basins is made using a different part of the Snowy Mountains Scheme.