Over-allocation in water systems: why correcting this is so difficult

A paper developed by Richard Davis, the senior science advisor for the National Water Commission presented in November last year attempts to look at the challenges associated with returning over-allocated systems to sustainable levels of extraction. The paper outlines a number of proposed measures, but primarily recommends that all jurisidictions develop transparent processes of identifying sustainable limits, and that environmental water be defined and delivered in accountable ways.

Abstract

The 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI) requires that all surface and groundwater systems be managed in an environmentally sustainable manner. Successive reviews have found that there has been slow progress in establishing environmental sustainability in Australia‟s water systems.

Deciding which environmental assets and ecosystems functions are to be maintained is inherently a social, not a technical, decision. Even with the recent employment of water buybacks and infrastructure upgrades to acquire water for the environment, decisions about the balance between environmental benefits and production benefits need to be made and legitimized in water plans.

However, governments have found it difficult to allocate sufficient water to maintain or recover environmental assets to the satisfaction of all interest groups, when the benefits from environmental water are diffuse and often long-term. There are also technical difficulties because the NWI wording allows a number of different interpretations of sustainability.

Three things are needed to improve the environmental sustainability of our aquatic ecosystems. First, the different interpretations of environmental sustainability need to be clarified and an agreed procedure established to put the NWI terms of "sustainable levels of extraction", "over-allocation" and "over-use" into practice.

Secondly, planning processes need to be improved so that decisions about water allocation are fully transparent, based on the best scientific information, and equitable.

Thirdly, environemntal water needs to be delivered and monitored more effectively so that the intended environemntal outcomes are actually achieved.

Reference:

Davis, R. (2009). "Why is it so difficult to implement sustainable levels of extraction and what we can do about it?" Sustaining the Rivers and Reservoirs, Speciality Conference, 17-18 November 2009, Canberra: Australian Water Association.