Water planning in Australia

Australia’s national water commissioners met in Brisbane to discuss progress on water planning across the nation and announced that no Australian jurisdiction can yet claim to have a fully effective water planning system.

“Effective water planning is fundamental to the National Water Initiative and is the best way for determining how we share valuable water resources among competing uses,” chair of the National Water Commission, Ken Matthews said.

“Whilst we acknowledge that the states and territories have made good progress on implementing agreed water planning processes, the rollout of completed water plans has been too slow.”

Commissioners expressed concern that water planning processes are not always of the necessary high standard.

“The quality and extent of science and data underpinning water plans remains a critical concern,” said Matthews.

“There is an urgent need to better manage the connectivity between surface and groundwater resources and to more effectively factor in the impacts of climate change and significant interception activities, such as farm dams and forestry, on future water availability.”

Recognising that nationally consistent water planning is central to dealing with the challenges of stressed systems, the commission has released a report to share the lessons learned by individual states and territories.

An accompanying position statement puts forward a set of priority actions for governments to meet their commitments under the National Water Initiative and to build community confidence in water planning processes.

“Our position statement calls for greater investment to improve the information underpinning water trade-offs, and to support more rigorous monitoring and compliance. Higher priority should also be given to ensuring that the values and interests of indigenous people are considered equitably in water planning processes,” Matthews said.

The Waterlines Report Water Planning Processes and Lessons Learned and accompanying Position Statement are available from the National Water Commission website . The commission will run a series of seminars nationwide to share these findings and is making targeted investments to support improved water planning processes across Australia.