Connectivity and Australian national water policy

The implications of stream-aquifer connectivity and the need for a conjunctive management approach have been known in Australia for at least forty years. The first national review of water resources (AWRC, 1965) stressed that groundwater should not be regarded as a resource separate from surface water, noting that:

"In some localities base flows in streams are maintained by drainage into them from underground sources while in other places streams are a source of replenishment for underground supply. Consequently, exploitation of the one can affect the availability of supply from the other. It is desirable, therefore, and likely to become increasingly important, that the conservation and utilisation of both resources should be planned jointly."

A similar review of water resources in Australia undertaken a decade later (AWRC, 1976) came up with the same conclusions:

"In the past, groundwater and surface water have tended to be viewed as separate resources, as a result, no doubt, of inherent differences in their modes of occurrence, assessment and development. Yet they are often hydraulically connected, and in any event, are complementary components of a larger single system. Thus, in assessing the water resources of a region, independent measurements of groundwater and surface water yield are not necessarily additive."

This was again reiterated in the 'Water 2000' report of water resource priorities undertaken in 1983, which specified that conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater supplies should be encouraged in present and future water resources planning (Department of Resources and Energy, 1983). The report also advocated that analyses of surface water-groundwater relationships are required to provide an appropriate systems approach basis for conjunctive use.

The words of the 1965 review and its successors have turned out to be quite prophetic. Over the last decade, the significance of the connectivity between surface water and groundwater systems has come to the fore in Australia. Below is a summary of more recent water policy initiatives and where explicitly mentioned, how these relate to conjunctive water management.

COAG Water Reforms

In February 1994, all governments across Australia, recognising inefficient and inappropriate use of water, agreed that the management and regulation of water resources required significant policy and institutional change. This agreement resulted in the endorsement of a national policy by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), known as the 'COAG Water Reform Framework', to achieve an efficient, economically viable and environmentally sustainable urban and rural water industry. Key policy elements included:

water pricing based on full cost recovery and the amount of water used;
establishment of clearly specified water entitlements and the arrangements to enable trade in those entitlements;
allocation to the environment as a legitimate user of water;
adoption of an integrated catchment management approach to water resource management;
establishment of regulatory and water service institutions that have clear roles and responsibilities; and
public education and consultation.

Although the management of groundwater was included in the provisions of the 1994 reforms, the framework had a focus on surface water resources and was not explicit about which aspects applied to surface water and to groundwater. It was not until 1996 that the issues surrounding groundwater management such as trading, pricing, drilling, well construction and institutional arrangements were formally accepted into the reform framework by COAG and thus introduced into national water policy. Also recognised at that time was the notion of considering the linkages between surface water and groundwater. The problems of managing connected water resources through different programs were acknowledged, noting that:

"groundwater and surface water resource management should be better integrated, including approaches to pricing (especially adjacent to public surface water regulated schemes), water allocations and trading to ensure consistency"(ARMCANZ 1997: Recommendation 3).

According to a policy paper by the Framework Taskforce:

"In many situations, groundwater and surface water are interconnected and interchangeable resources where decisions made in one area affect the other. Consider, for example, the situation which exists in parts of Australia where no groundwater license is required for a well adjacent to a stream, whereas the stream is fully allocated. Single resource policies embracing conjunctive use and integrated management of groundwater and surface water through allocation and pricing mechanisms need to be more actively pursued by the States" (ARMCANZ 1997:3).

In addition, Resolution 6 (ARMCANZ, 1998) states that:

"Progress has been made in some limited areas in meeting environmental needs of groundwater, but further progress has been constrained by a poor understanding of the location, extent and processes associated with groundwater/surface water interactions and associated ecosystems."

National Water Initiative

At the August 2003 meeting of COAG, it was agreed that there was a pressing need to consolidate and refresh the 1994 water reform agenda to increase the productivity and efficiency of water use, sustain rural and urban communities and to ensure the health of river and groundwater systems. COAG agreed to develop a National Water Initiative (NWI) to:

improve the security of water access entitlements;
ensure ecosystem health by implementing regimes to protect environmental assets at a whole-of-basin, aquifer or catchment scale;
ensure water is put to best use by encouraging the expansion of water markets and trading; and
encourage water conservation in cities.

At its meeting in June 2004, COAG agreed to establish a National Water Commission (NWC) to assess progress in implementing the NWI and advise on actions required to better realise the objectives of the NWI Agreement. There are a number of references to a conjunctive management approach within the intergovernmental agreements relating to the NWI, namely:

One of the primary objectives is to recognise the connectivity between surface and groundwater resources and connected systems managed as a single resource (NWI 2004, clause 23x).
With reference to water resource accounting, the key outcome is to ensure that adequate measurement, monitoring and reporting systems are in place to support public and investor confidence in the amount of water being extracted for consumptive use (NWI 2004, clause 80).This outcome is to be achieved, in part, by consolidated water accounts, that can be reconciled annually and aggregated to produce a national water balance (NWI 2004, clause 82 iii).
These accounts are to be inclusive of systems to integrate the accounting of groundwater and surface water use where close interaction between aquifers and streamflow exist (NWI 2004, clause 82 iiib). Also States and Territories to immediately establish common arrangements in the case of significantly inter-connected groundwater and surface water systems (NWI 2004 clause 79 i(c)).
The NWI also stipulates that all States and Territories agree to identify by the end of 2005 situations where close interaction between groundwater aquifers and streamflow exist and implement by 2008 systems to integrate the accounting of groundwater and surface water use (NWI 2004, clause 83).

Other Australian Water Initiatives

This recognition of connectivity has also been supported by other recent water policy discussions. The study, Water and the Australian Economy, (ATSE, 1999) concluded that:

"Policies are needed to ensure the resource is managed in its totality, including groundwater, unregulated rivers and water quality. Water markets must be regulated to ensure individual trades do not impose external effects on third parties. Current regulatory systems do not offer sufficient protection to third party interests or the proper regulation of whole water systems".

The National Land and Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) stressed the importance of developing and applying methods to understand and then manage at a basin scale conjunctive use, and to integrate surface water and groundwater management within an overall context of sustainability (NLWRA, 2001). The Audit recommended an Australia-wide initiative in partnership with State and Territory water management authorities that included understanding and managing interactions between surface water and groundwater quality and quantity.

In 2002, a series of groundwater policy papers was developed by the High Level Steering Group on Water in conjunction with the National Groundwater Committee (NGC). In particular, one of these papers on groundwater quality protection noted the importance of connectivity. This was followed by a national workshop convened by the NGC to identify research priorities for groundwater management. The workshop paper 'Knowledge Gaps for Groundwater Reforms' defined the key information gaps of groundwater dependent ecosystems, water level response management and land use change, as well as integration of surface and groundwater management.

In July 2003, a Blueprint for a National Water Plan was released by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists . In addition to other aspects of water resource management, the blueprint acknowledged the importance of considering groundwater-surface water interactions:

"... water accounts also need to take into account... the interconnected nature of groundwater and surface water systems... Entitlements to access water must therefore address run-off, land use, river water and groundwater... In the 21st century we will need systems that recognise hydrological connections".

Other Australian Natural Resource Management Programs

An important component of water reform is the management of water quality. In 1992 a National Water Quality Management Strategy (NWQMS) was introduced by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. In 1994, the strategy was incorporated into the COAG Water Reform Framework. The main policy objective of the NWQMS is based on the philosophy of ecologically sustainable development to 'achieve sustainable use of the nation's water resources by protecting and enhancing their quality while maintaining economic and social development'. The NWQMS comprises policies, a process and 21 national guidelines for water quality management.

The Natural Heritage Trust (NHT) and National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) are two other major programs that aim to address environment and natural resource issues in Australia. The NHT was set up by the Australian Government in 1997 and funding has since been extended to 2007 to support the sustainable management of Australia's natural resources, including measures to improve water quality. The NAP was announced in October 2000 to address salinity and water quality in some of Australia's worst affected areas. The NAP is designed to improve land and water management in 21 priority regions. In relation to surface and groundwater management, the Action Plan promotes:

caps to be set for all surface and groundwater systems identified as over-allocated or approaching full allocation; and
introduction of a new approach to groundwater and surface water administration that recognises their interdependency and the need for their joint management for salinity and water quality outcomes.

References

ATSE 1999, Water and the Australian economy. Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

ARMCANZ, 1997.Allocation and use of groundwater: a national framework for improved groundwater management in Australia, Occasional paper number 2, Policy position paper for advice to States and Territories, Commonwealth of Australia. Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand

ARMCANZ, 1998. Special Water Meeting: Resolution No.6 Groundwater Management, Adelaide. Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand

AWRC, 1965. Review of Australia's water resources 1963 - Stream flow and underground resources. Australian Water Resources Council, Department of National development, Canberra.

AWRC, 1976. Review of Australia's water resources 1975. Australian Water Resources Council, Canberra

DRE, 1983. Water 2000. A perspective on Australia's water resources to the year 2000. Department of Resources and Energy, Australia.

NGC, 2004 Knowledge gaps for groundwater reform. A strategic directions paper for water researchers. National Groundwater Committee.

NLWRA 2001, Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000, Surface water and groundwater - availability and quality, National Land and Water Resources Audit, Canberra.

NWI, 2004. Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative. Council of Australian Governments.

WGCS, 2003. Blueprint for a National Water Plan, Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists WWF, Australia.

Water Policy