Raising National Water Standards Program
This $250 million program offers support for projects that are improving Australia's national capacity to measure, monitor and manage our water resources.
Funds from the Raising National Water Standards Program are directed at activities across three strategic investment areas:
- advancing the implementation of the National Water Initiative
- improving integrated water management across Australia
- improving knowledge and understanding of our water resources.
To guide investment in high priority activities to improve water management and advance national water reform, the Commission developed two investment pathways for the Raising National Water Standards Program: a strategic commissioning pathway and a competitive call pathway.
In 2007, a National Groundwater Action Plan was initiated by the Commission under the Raising National Water Standards Program to fund projects to progress the groundwater reforms agreed to under the National Water Initiative.
Approved projects
The Commission manages 177 Raising National Water Standards projects which have been funded under the following themes:
- Water accounting
- Emerging water markets
- Water planning and management
- Knowledge and capacity building
- Irrigation and other rural water
- Water-dependent ecosystems
- Integrated urban water management
- Groundwater
- Northern rivers
- National assessment of water resources
- Northern Australia water futures assessment
Find out more about the National Groundwater Action Plan.
See a list of all the projects by jurisdiction.
Raising National Water Standards Program evaluation
Independent evaluations of the RNWS Program have been commissioned to examine the effectiveness of the program and review its most important achievements.
An initial evaluation in 2009–10 investigated projects funded under the water accounting, emerging water markets, and integrated urban water management themes and recommended knowledge adoption as a priority. Since then, a $3 million RNWS project has encouraged the practical adoption of outputs and tools developed under the program.
A second evaluation built on the findings of a mid-term evaluation in 2009–10, which investigated projects funded under the water accounting, emerging water markets, and integrated urban water management themes and recommended knowledge adoption as a priority. Since then, a $3 million RNWS project has encouraged the practical adoption of outputs and tools developed under the program.
According to the Stage 2 evaluation's findings, the RNWS Program is achieving highly valued impacts in many areas that are fundamental to national water reform. There is good evidence — confirmed by organisations using project outputs — that the program has supported water reform progress and improved water management by governments, regulators and other stakeholders.