CONNECTIVITY between ground and surface water should immediately be assumed and metering of stock and domestic water are top of a major list of recommendations in a new report which has slammed the slow rate of water reform in Australia.
The report, Australian Water Reform 2009, was released last week by the National Water Commission and reveals Australia's water supplies are in deep trouble because many reform benchmarks set five years ago are nowhere near being met.
Commissioner, Ken Matthews, is critical of all governments, State and Federal, for not doing enough to reform water use across the country.
He said despite some progress, the National Water Initiative – signed in 2004 with much fan-fare - is behind in all timeframes and nearly all reform areas.
This is despite the heightened pressure on water resources from climate change, he said.
The 300-plus page bi-annual report made more than 100 findings and 68 recommendations to help speed up the process and pull all Governments into line and back on track to address over-allocation and extraction in city and rural areas, and both within and outside the Murray Darling Basin.
There were some good aspects, including recognition of a strong water market and moves in the right direction to free up water trade.
Mr Matthews said importantly there was still a reform framework and no stakeholder had walked away from that, but it was imperative Governments "stay the course".
He said more than 40 per cent of the promised water sharing plans were still not in place Australia wide and environmental degradation was continuing.
He criticised the environmental aims of all Governments for often not being clear enough, adding the community was often "sceptical" about the use of water for the environment.
In particular Mr Matthews said irrigators "lacked clarity" about their future, and stressed the need for improved clarity about the water reform process in irrigation communities and of the Government's environmental objectives.
The report makes the broad recommendation that it be assumed all ground and surface water is connected – completely the opposite of what is considered now – and Governments should "reverse the onus of proof" in relation to water connectivity.
It argues also for universal metering of surface and groundwater, including stock and domestic use.
However Mr Matthews was quick to insist this not be a case for collecting revenue but just improving the overall picture of how and where water is used.
Among other recommendations, Mr Matthews suggests water restrictions not be used indefinitely but instead be reserved for times of exceptional circumstances.
He also urges all towns and cities not to rule out the option of recycled water as a basis for their water supplies.
He said Governments were still bickering and at odds with each other, and he did not see enough evidence of them working collaboratively.
He said while it was great that there was a Murray-Darling Basin plan being developed, the community should not wait until a draft plan next year, and the final plan in 2011, to receive information on the direction of water reform in the basin. Instead, he insists on interim guidance on its progress, to keep the community – particularly irrigators – up to date.
National Farmers Federation (NFF) chief executive officer, Ben Fargher, said the recommendation on stock and domestic water was a sensitive issue for farmers and one the NFF would be closely lobbying on.
He said it was unclear how this metering would happen, what it would cost, and whether there would be any implications for future stock and domestic water use or access.
Mr Fargher said the report highlighted the urgent need for better accountability and clarity in the reform process and revealed there had still been no clarity on risk assignment – the details on who bares what risk when the goal posts on water entitlements will inevitably be shifted.
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