Growing water needs

The Minister’s performance assessment report (PDF, 2.6MB) identified changing needs that must be addressed.

We need to review how sharing water is balanced between all water interests, including the environment, cultural and end-of-system fisheries in the Gulf.

We need to balance growing demand for water to use in urban development, new irrigated agriculture and in the critical minerals industries with the known impacts of those industries and all the other identified interests and values. The whole of the water plan area must be considered as a system.

A Regional Water Assessment (RWA) will run in parallel with the water plan review. This will identify the most viable options (infrastructure or non-infrastructure) for supporting future economic growth and water security in the area.

The water plan review will use scientific modelling of the cumulative impacts and risks from a range of different water availability scenarios. For example, one option that has been raised is providing the ability to harvest additional water from very large flow events. The review process will test these types of scenarios for impacts on:

• existing water entitlement holders
• cultural values
• the environment
• the Gulf of Carpentaria and the associated fishing industry.

We want to understand your views on how we should prioritise competing demands for water and how we can cater for the growing demands without impacting existing water uses and values.