Meeting our water challenge
A drier climate, population growth and land use changes are posing threats to Victoria’s water supplies and waterway health. We need long-term assessments and strategies so we can face these challenges. This is why we keep track of our water, manage its use and how it's shared.
The Water Act 1989 requires that we plan for Victoria’s water security and future supplies through sustainable water strategies and long-term water resource assessments.
Sustainable water strategies
Sustainable water strategies (SWS) help manage water resources and improve waterway health. They identify threats to a region water supply and its quality, so we can plan for the future.
In the past, SWS have reduced water demands, secured water supplies and protected waterways and aquifers.
Find the SWS in your region
Long-term water resource assessment
Long-term water resource assessments (LTWRAs) explore changes in water availability. These changes can impact Traditional Owner values, farming, industry, cities, towns and the environment. They also help determine if there have been changes in waterway health.
The Water Act requires a LTWRA every 15 years. The assessment determines if:
- water availability has declined
- waterway health has deteriorated due to changes in flow.
The LTWRA for southern Victoria is now complete. The assessment's findings inform our future water planning, including through the Central and Gippsland Region Sustainable Water Strategy.
The LTWRA for northern Victoria will start in 2025 with a review of the approach to undertaking a LTWRA in northern Victoria. This review will allow for a contemporary approach for long-term water assessments, taking learnings from the LTWRA for southern Victoria and applying them in a northern Victorian context.
While we are reviewing the LTWRA, DEECA will continue to provide information via annual publication of Victorian Water Accounts, and assessments to inform Basin Plan evaluation and review.
The review will help to inform how a LTWRA in northern Victoria could better reflect environmental outcomes, recognise Traditional Owner values, and take into account both historical changes and future risks, such as climate change.
Taking time to get it right will deliver useful outcomes for water uses, water managers and community. It is important that a LTWRA provides a robust evidence base to support conversations with the community to inform future decisions.
Long-term water resource assessment for southern Victoria
How the government manages the water sharing between users
The Water Act outlines how the Minister for Water manages water sharing between users of surface water and groundwater.
The LTWRA formal process considers:
- if the long-term reduction in water availability means consideration of a fairer sharing of the resources between consumptive users and the environment
- responses to water-sharing arrangements to a decline in waterway health related to change in flow.
Arrangements for water sharing need to be current.
If the LTWRA shows a need for a review of water-sharing arrangements, a new sustainable water strategy can plan for this.
Long-term water resource assessment process
The assessment for southern Victoria began in August 2018 and finished in February 2020.
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