Understanding the effects of groundwater extraction on Indigenous water access

As part of the Queensland Water Planning Tools pilot study, this report was prepared by Dr Ian White and the project team in partnership with the Traditional Custodian groups of the country covered in the Central Condamine Alluvium region. The four Indigenous groups ? the Barunggam, the Jarowair, the Giabal, and the Kambuwal ? recognised as Traditional Custodians of this country worked with the research team to articulate the current past impacts of groundwater extraction on Indigenous access and use of water resources.

Overview

The National Water Initiative requires that the State provide for Indigenous access to water resources through water planning processes which ensure:

the inclusion of Indigenous representation in water planning, wherever possible, and
that water plans incorporate Indigenous social, spiritual and customary objectives and strategies for achieving these objectives wherever they can be developed.

Four Indigenous groups ? the Barunggam, the Jarowair, the Giabal, and the Kambuwal ? are recognised as Traditional Custodians of the country in the Central Condamine Alluvium. This

Water Planning Tools project report

was prepared in partnership with these Traditional Custodian groups. It articulates current impacts of past groundwater extraction on Indigenous access and use of water resources, with the aims:

To provide input to the Queensland Government’s development of a groundwater amendment to the Water Resource (Condamine and Balonne) Plan 2004;
To inform government, non?government bodies and the community about local Aboriginal aspirations and priorities in the management of the water resources, and the broader cultural and natural resource management aspirations and goals of Aboriginal communities in the region;
To provide a key negotiation tool in resource management discussions;
To contribute to recognition and documentation of Aboriginal interests and cultural assets;
To articulate effective methods of engagement with Traditional Custodians.

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge

Even with the latest technologies and data, it is an imprecise science to establish groundwater system interactions with water at the surface, where it is visible and ‘known’. In contrast to the segmented nature of many modern technical and scientific NRM analyses, Indigenous knowledge is holistic and abiding. An approach that seeks to integrate Indigenous knowledge and the technical forms of knowledge favoured by government agencies is consistent with applications of Indigenous knowledge in NRM impact assessments elsewhere. To achieve this, Indigenous perspectives on the use of water resources in the Central Condamine Alluvium area were articulated in three ways:

summary reports on in?depth interviews and focus groups with participants,
photo essays of impacted country, and
topographical mapping, with potential groundwater system interaction explored using an overlay of groundwater modeling.

These engagement methods were collaboratively developed with Traditional Custodians who participated in this study, and are easily replicable and effective.

The Consequences of Groundwater Extraction

The three Traditional Custodian groups able to participate in the study documented historical and spiritual links to this area and its water resources. These links were revealed in stories, existing anthropological/archaeological studies and historical records, and language names for sites and resources. The findings demonstrate severe and chronic impairment of Indigenous social, spiritual and customary uses of water resources due to deterioration of the resources and restricted accessibility. This impairment influences the ability of Traditional Custodians to pass down traditional knowledge and to maintain environmental conditions and other important qualities of these sites.

The Indigenous evidence is that fish caught in streams are covered in sores, and that riparian food and medicine plants are difficult to locate, or gone. ‘Permanent’ natural springs no longer flow, historic ‘soaks’ are dry, and there are no food sources at historically cornucopian billabongs because the billabongs themselves are dry. Where groundwater resources in earlier times provided some ecosystem resilience to drought in this country, this resilience is severely compromised by the widening gap between surface water sites and the groundwater table.

Poor management of groundwater evaporation ponds at mine sites has resulted in brine effluent outflows, with notable impact on flora witnessed in the guided visits to country. There were several reports of surface water quality affected by agricultural chemical contamination which has implications for groundwater quality.

Recommendations

Despite the poor ‘report card’ on customary Indigenous uses of water, the engagement tools selected by Indigenous participants successfully identifyied impacts of groundwater extraction. Four recommendations are made in the conclusions drawn from this report.

Recommendation 1a: Groundwater extraction should be reduced as soon as possible to a level of sustainable yield in order to prevent further damage to surface ecosystems.
Recommendation 1b: Wherever possible, groundwater extraction should be reduced to less than the sustainable yield in order to remediate existing damage to surface ecosystems, and to prevent aquifer collapse and subsidence.
Recommendation 2: Significant water sites should be placed under the protection of the ACH Register. A plenary session of Traditional Custodians, DERM agency staff responsible for maintaining the ACH Register and for water planning, local NRM groups that coordinate regional Indigenous interests (Condamine Alliance, Queensland Murray Darling Committee) and the Water Planning Tools project researcher is scheduled for late February 2010, in order to progress registration of significant water sites, and discuss how the findings from NRM impact assessments can effectively feed into the planning and decision process to deliver better outcomes for Indigenous interests.
Recommendation 3: Indigenous communities and government agencies need to develop closer relationships in order to minimise the risk of a failure to engage with Traditional Custodians because the appropriate representatives of these groups are not always well known to DERM agency staff.

The evidence provided in this report suggests that groundwater extraction needs to be reduced to restore ecological function in areas of interest to local Aboriginal people. Better documentation and registration of significant sites is needed. Traditional Custodians who participated in the study wish to contribute to a purposeful and deliberative planning process. But above all, and on behalf of their country, they wish to contribute to a process that restores groundwater and achieves a sustainable balance in the future allocation of groundwater resources.

Download the full report here.

Citation

White, I. (2010) Impacts of groundwater extraction on Indigenous access and use of water resources in the Central Condamine Alluvium. Water Planning Tools Project Report. Brisbane: Griffith University.