Monitoring the impacts of water trade
Project details
| Objective: | The aim of this project was to monitor and report on the economic, environmental and social impacts (both positive and negative) attributable to water trading in the southern Murray-Darling Basin in the ten year period from 1998-99 to 2008-09. |
| Funding: | Up to $675,000 plus applicable GST from the Australian Government towards the cost associated with supporting the work program. |
| Jurisdiction: | Southern Murray-Darling Basin |
| Commenced: | April 2007 |
| Completed: | June 2010 |
Progress
About the project
Paragraph 63 of the National Water Initiative (NWI) requires the National Water Commission to monitor the impacts of water trade and advise the parties of the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council (Commonwealth, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia) on any issues arising.
The project was conducted in three stages.
Stage one of the project involved scoping the economic, social and environmental impacts of trade and reviewing current economic, social and environmental impact monitoring and assessment arrangements. As part of scoping the economic and social impacts of trade, the Commission, in conjunction with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) commissioned and released a report: The economic and social impacts of water trading - case studies in the Victorian Murray Valley.
The stage one scoping exercise also identified environmental impacts (both positive and negative) that may arise through water trade.
While anecdotal evidence of the economic, social and environmental impacts of trade existed, an ongoing assessment of the impacts of trade on individual entitlement holders, industries, communities and the environment required the development of a framework for monitoring and reporting these impacts. Prior to this project, there was no such framework.
Stage two therefore, developed a framework under which the economic, social and environmental impacts of water trade can be monitored. In developing this framework, close attention was given to data availability.
Having finalised the framework, stage three monitored the impacts of trade and reported on these impacts in June 2010.
The commission will repeat this project in 2011/12, using the framework established in stage two of the project.
Project benefits
It is important that individuals, communities and governments can differentiate between those impacts that are the result of water trade, and those that reflect other changes such as those occurring in the broader economy or as a result of climate and rainfall variability.
The Economic and Social Impacts of Water Trading report (stage one of the project) concluded that it is extremely difficult to untangle the effects of trade from a background of drought, changes in commodity markets and rural adjustment.
Developing and implementing a framework for monitoring and reporting the impacts of trade will assist stakeholders across regional economies and communities, as well as governments, by providing information about the actual economic, social and environmental impacts of water trading. The extent to which water trade may speed up the rate of change associated with other drivers of change was also considered and reported on in this project.
Importantly, developing and implementing this framework delivered on the Commission's NWI commitment to monitor the impacts of trade. The framework will also assist the Commission to prepare future Biennial Assessments, specifically in relation to the assessment of the extent to which NWI actions contribute to the national interest and the impacts on regional and rural communities (NWI paragraph 106 b) refers).