Australian Water Management Review Vol 1 2010 | Page 7

The need to take action on water
By Ken Matthews

Australia’s water is still in trouble yet, worryingly, the pace of reform has
slowed on almost every front. This is the National Water Commission’s
overriding conclusion in its second two-yearly examination of Australia’s water
management – Australian Water Reform 2009.

If anything, the position has deteriorated
since the Commission’s previous
assessment in 2007. Climate change is
biting deeper, in the continuing southern
drought, in dwindling rivers, dams
and groundwater, in stressed native
landscapes, hard-hit irrigation farms and
rural communities, in our increasingly
erratic weather patterns. Water reform was
always hard but this has raised the bar for
all of us.
Forty per cent of the water plans promised
by state governments are still uncompleted,
and many existing plans have been put on
hold due to low flows in southern Australia.
The good news is that there has been some
progress, in knowing how much water we
have, in understanding how to manage it
wisely, in planning, and in the emergence of
an efficient water market that has brought
some relief t