Commitments
The National Water Initiative (NWI) agreement includes outcomes and commitments to specific actions across eight inter-related elements of water management:
Water access entitlements and planning
A fundamental aim of the NWI is to restore surface and groundwater systems to environmentally sustainable levels. Effective water planning provides certainty about the terms of access for consumptive and environmental water users within an evidence-based, participatory and transparent process.
Water markets and trading
The NWI will work towards the removal of institutional and administrative barriers to trade in water and promote efficient water markets. Water trading systems will have the widest possible geographic scope, and will not be restricted to within catchment areas.
Best practice water pricing
Water pricing and institutional arrangements under the NWI will:
- promote economically efficient and sustainable use of water resources, water infrastructure assets and government resources devoted to the management of water
- ensure sufficient revenue streams to allow efficient delivery of the required services
- facilitate the efficient functioning of water markets in both rural and urban settings
- give effect to the principle of 'user-pays' and achieve pricing transparency in respect of water storage and delivery in irrigation systems and cost recovery for water planning and management
- avoid perverse or unintended pricing outcomes.
Integrated management of water for the environment
The outcome for integrated management of environmental water under the NWI is to identify the environmental and other public benefit outcomes being sought for water systems and to develop and implement management practices and institutional arrangements that will achieve those outcomes.
Importantly, this incorporates adopting and implementing the principles developed under the NWI for recovery of water in overallocated and overused systems and return to sustainable levels of extraction.
Water resource accounting
The outcome of water resource accounting is to ensure that adequate measurement, monitoring and reporting systems are in place in all jurisdictions, to support public and investor confidence in the amount of water being traded, extracted for consumptive use, and recovered and managed for environmental and other public benefit outcomes.
Urban water reform
The objectives for urban water reform outlined in the NWI are to:
- provide healthy, safe and reliable water supplies
- increase water use efficiency in domestic and commercial settings
- encourage re-use and recycling of wastewater where cost effective
- facilitate water trading between and within the urban and rural sectors
- encourage innovation in water supply sourcing, treatment, storage and discharge
- achieve improved pricing for metropolitan water.
Knowledge and capacity building
The National Water Initiative (NWI) identifies areas where there is significant knowledge and capacity building needs for its ongoing implementation. Signatories to the Initiative have agreed to identify the key knowledge and capacity building priorities needed to support ongoing implementation of the Agreement, and identify and implement proposals to more effectively coordinate the national water knowledge effort.
Community partnerships and adjustment
Government are to engage water users and other stakeholders in achieving the objectives of the Initiative by improving certainty and building confidence in the reform processes; transparency in decision making; and ensuring sound information is available to all sectors at key decision points. New and improved measuring, monitoring, reporting and accounting procedures will be introduced, and improved public access to information will increase public acceptance of the Initiative.