Overview
Annual reviews and reporting are a snapshot in time and ensure monitoring of progress towards long-term water management outcomes across NSW.
They are current for the reporting period only and provide insights to drive adaptive management practices. For the latest updates on water strategies, please refer to the respective pages.
This report provides a summary of implementation over the 2023-24 reporting period across the water strategies program which includes:
Key achievements for 2023-24
A range of different activity was undertaken over the reporting period to support strategy implementation including, but not limited to:
- publication of the Water Quality Governance Roadmap by DCCEEW Water
- continued development of the Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM) Framework and draft Recycled Water Roadmap
- development and consultation of the draft NSW Aboriginal Water Strategy
- introduction of developer charges for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services
- completion of the Macquarie-Castlereagh Regional Water Strategy to improve the security and certainty of water resources in the region
- completion of the Stage 1 review of the water components of the Building and Sustainability Index (BASIX)
- completion of the annual update to the Greater Sydney Drought Response Plan
- Sydney Water completing their ‘Our Water Our Voice’ customer engagement program
- the opening of the Sydney Water Purified Recycled Water Discovery Centre to the public and visits of more than 2000 people to the plant
- amendment of the Water Management (General) Regulation 2018 to allow Sydney Water to apply for a specific purpose access licence to capture excess stormwater in the Mamre Road and Aerotropolis precincts.
Key themes
The key themes below showcase our overall water strategy actions and describe what we have delivered.
Building community confidence and capacity through engagement, transparency, and accountability.
Recognising Aboriginal peoples’ rights, values and increasing access to and ownership of water for cultural and economic purposes.
Enhanced, state-wide focus on sustainable groundwater management.
Improving system connectivity across the NSW portion of the northern Murray-Darling Basin.
Reducing urban water security risks and supporting resilient cities and towns.
Water efficiency and leakage reduction – doing more with less.
Preparing for drought and managing risk.
Taking a holistic approach to land and water management.
Sustainable coastal waterways in a changing climate.
Region snapshots
Region-based water strategies address the specific challenges of a region with local solutions. Nine regional water strategies and 2 metropolitan strategies have been finalised and are being implemented.
Region-based strategies ensure each region is prepared for a changing climate.
Find out details on the progress of strategy implementation for each region