Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy

Draft Water Plan Released for Northern Victoria

The draft Northern Victorian Sustainable Water Strategy was released on Friday, October 10 2008 by the Minister for Water, Tim Holding.

The draft strategy contains more than 50 proposals designed to clarify all water users’ rights to water and increase flexibility to manage risk through the uncertainty of climate change and drought.

The proposals, which have been released for public comment, include:

• Mechanisms to ensure towns and cities in northern Victoria would not run out of water, however minimising the social impacts of severe water restrictions through opening up water trade and carryover

• Making sure the irrigation distribution system can run every year, and reducing the risk of zero allocations for irrigators through changing the system reserve policy

• Advocating a three phase management approach to make sure rivers and wetlands can survive dry years and recover during average and wetter years

• Bolstering tools such as carryover and trade so individual entitlement holders, including the environment, can manage their own risk

• Clarifying rights to water, particularly during droughts

The draft strategy has been developed following several months’ of consultation between water authorities, catchment management authorities, interest groups and government departments. It seeks a balance for all water users to manage their own risk, have more flexibility and choice, be efficient with water and have confidence in their water rights, in a future which may contain less rainfall.

Submissions to the draft strategy are due in by 12 December 2009, and will be considered before the government releases the final Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy in 2009.

The final strategy will set the blueprint for northern Victoria’s water resources for the next 50 years, and will be the Region’s response to the uncertainty of climate change and drought.

For a copy of the draft strategy, go to www.ourwater.gov.au/programs/sws/northern/draft.

Goulburn Valley Water has made the Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy Fact Sheets available in Adobe PDF format. 
If you do not have the Acrobat Reader please click on the button below to obtain your free copy.

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 1 - Having a say

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 2 - Water are we planning for?

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 3 - What are we proposing?

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 4 - Sharing the Murray River

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 5 - Protecting the Environment

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 6 - More choice for water users

NRSWS Fact Sheet Number 7 - Groundwater and upper catchment water users

NRSWS Draft Strategy Key Messages
 

For more information about the Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy Discussion Paper visit the the
Department of Sustainability and Environment website.