Water Management (General) Regulation 2025 amendments

Amendments are required to the Regulation to further implement recommendations from the 2024 Non-urban metering Review. 

These amendments will support the integrity of water management by improving water take information available for compliance actions and resource management.
 

Stage 2 amendments primarily relate to introducing new requirements for:

• Work approval holders to be able to attribute or adjust their take of water to an access licence if their work is nominated by more than one access licence.
• Under the proposed amendments, water users with access licence entitlements of 3,000 or greater will have to attest by 30 September each year, to the volume of water taken under their licence in the previous water year.

Other amendments are proposed to:

• streamline reporting and recording requirements to reduce the administrative burden, where possible, for water users and water agencies. This will take into account the information that telemetered data provides
• exempt cleaning of fish screens from metering and exempt the water take associated with this cleaning from requiring an access licence where water taken during cleaning is returned to the river immediately and losses are negligible
• require ongoing metering installation and maintenance for 5 years after a water allocation assignment dealing has occurred
• for works that only take water under a licence exemption - create a new work classification, metering exemption and mandatory condition only allowing water to be taken using that work under an access licence exemption
• address minor drafting issues to ensure consistency with the Non-Urban Metering Framework and Floodplain Harvesting Measurement Policy.

The proposed amendments are intended to commence in the first quarter of the 2026-27 water year with the ability to attribute and obligation to attest applying to the 2026–27 water year. 

This means approval holders will be able to attribute take and relevant access licence holders will have to attest by 30 September 2027 for the water year commencing 1 July 2026 and ending 30 June 2027.

The process for water users to attest to their water take is currently being developed by the Natural Resources Access Regulator and WaterNSW. It may include submitting a simple online form, or another online method. Water users can have their say about the process during the public exhibition period from 18 May to 15 June 2026.

You are encouraged to have input and submit comments through the online form. All comments will be considered and inform the drafting of the final Regulation before it is made.

When the public exhibition period closes on 15 June 2026 a summary of feedback will be compiled and sent to the Minister for Water along with recommendations for proceeding with the regulation amendments.

The intent is for the Water Management (General) Regulation 2025 to be amended in the first quarter of the 2026-27 water year.

A What we heard report will be published on the department’s website later in 2026, detailing the feedback received during the public exhibition period.