13/02/2021

(AU) Productivity Commission Says New Australian Water Deal Must Recognise Climate Change

The Guardian - 

Federal and state governments are being urged to respond to the effects of the climate crisis and to Indigenous rights to water

File photo of the Darling Barka river. The Productivity Commission says governments need to acknowledge climate change will challenge existing water sharing agreements. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images






States and the federal government should forge a new compact on water policy that explicitly recognises climate change, and which sets “triggers” for rapid policy responses, the Productivity Commission has said.

Releasing its draft report on national water reform, the commission has called for a substantial overhaul of the 17-year-old National Water Initiative, a bedrock document that commits the states and federal government to working together on water policy as well as outlining a work program for the future.

In particular, the commission wants explicit recognition that climate change will challenge existing agreements on sharing water between states and between users, towns, agriculture and the environment.

The commission has also called for much more meaningful recognition of Indigenous rights to water.

Commissioner Dr Jane Doolan said: “It is time for our governments to once again lead the way on developing a new national water policy and agree a pathway to meet these challenges.

“We can expect an estimated additional 11 million people living in capital cities by 2050, and climate change is likely to mean significant reductions in water availability for most of the country and an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts and floods across the nation.”

The commission wants to see governments commit, by way of a new National Water Initiative, to plans and policies for responding to the effects of climate change.

It also wants governments to agree to climate change triggers that would prompt a review of water agreements and policies.

The Murray-Darling Basin plan, one of the outcomes of the 2003 National Water Initiative, has been criticised because it does not contain any mechanisms to acknowledge the impact of climate change.

While it is said to be a dynamic plan, most of the changes over its 13-year lifespan have involved giving more water to agriculture and halting buybacks of water for the environment because of its socio-economic impact, which is a recognised reason for adjusting the plan.

But without an explicit mechanism to take account of climate change, the plan has struggled to deal with evidence of environmental disasters such as the fish kills in the Darling. The plan has not been adjusted to take account of the more frequent droughts, longer periods when the Darling ceases to flow, and the new reality of lower inflows into the river system.

The current plan is scheduled to run until 2027.

Doolan said the science on the likely impacts of climate change on water supplies had established more variable rainfall was likely in the north, and hotter, drier conditions in the south of eastern Australia, where much of the country’s agribusiness is located.

“There needs to be a mechanism to reassess the balance between environmental and consumptive uses when it is clear that this is required – for example, if climate change means that the previously agreed balance no longer meets the objectives for either the environment or consumptive users,” the report says.

It suggests that this could be a hydrological trigger, such as a fall in streamflows and groundwater resources, or an ecological trigger, where agreed long-term ecological outcomes are clearly not being achieved. Both would require monitoring and evaluation.

But the critical finding of the Productivity Commission is that this needs to be agreed in advance by the states and the commonwealth.

It also wants all states to commit to drought management plans.

“The millennium drought and recent drought in New South Wales and Queensland revealed a number of shortcomings in the current water management arrangements in information, planning and compliance that exacerbated the impact of these droughts on environmental assets and other water users,” the report says.

The report suggests states need to commit to plans to deal with water scarcity, priorities for water sharing and actions relating to meeting critical human and environmental needs. These could include rules to limit water extraction, protecting critically low flows to protect critical habitats and protecting flows when it does rain again.

In addition, there needs to be a clear hierarchy of water uses, prioritising critical human needs, then critical environmental needs. Consideration must also be given to water quality, it says.

Doolan also wants the next agreement to put detailed plans around how the states and the federal government will deliver on earlier, more vague commitments to recognise cultural water rights.

“It needs to recognise the importance of water in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ,” Doolan said.

“All states have signed up to Closing the Gap,” she said. “The aspirations of First Nations people on water have grown and are now much better articulated.”

She said the new National Water Initiative should include an entire section that deals with how states will deliver on cultural values by providing a much bigger say for Indigenous people in water policy. But she also flagged the need for economic rights to water, which can likely only be achieved by buying back water for Indigenous communities.

The federal government committed $40m to establish and support First Nations investment in cultural and economic water entitlements in 2018 but it was part of a deal that saw environmental water recovery targets for the northern basin of the Murray-Darling cut by 70GL, following pressure from farmers.

A committee has been established to work with Indigenous groups on concrete proposals for the National Water Initiative.

The Productivity Commission also wants to see governments commit to a more rigorous process for water infrastructure projects.

The NSW and federal governments have committed $1bn to the Wyangala and Dungowan dams without a business case or an environmental assessment of their impact on river systems.

The $500m pipeline from the Murray to supply water to Broken Hill was commenced without any business case.

Doolan said the federal government had earmarked $3.5bn for the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund and had already spent $1.6bn.

“We need to get the best bang for our buck,” she said, including for regional “town water supplies as well as for agriculture”.

In the face of growing urban populations, the Productivity Commission also wants to see the states commit to better and more science-based development of urban water resources, with all options on the table.

In the past some state governments have ruled out recycling of wastewater for drinking supplies, fearing a voter backlash, even though recycling is done safely around the world.

The commission is seeking comment on its draft report.

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