Drought preparedness

Our understanding of drought risk has improved, and new climate data and modelling developed for long-term water strategies provides a better understanding of the current and future water risks to communities across the state, including drought. NSW is expected to become hotter and drier, with increases in extreme weather events (both flood and drought).

Understanding climatic risks enables us to work effectively across the water sector to manage water supplies and ensure that operations planning, and water management decisions properly consider likely future conditions.

In collaboration with the Department of Primary Industries, work has progressed to apply our understanding of current climate trends and their implications for key agricultural industries. Through the Department of Primary Industries’ Climate Vulnerability Assessment project, we are gaining important insights into how the climate suitability of dryland and irrigated crops may change due to climate change. This insight is crucial for guiding future adaptation research and investment. The project is also looking at how climate change is likely to influence the suitability of related pests and disease, as well as how the nature of droughts may shift under climate change.

Climate data and modelling also guide planning in our cities. We know that our major cities are highly dependent on rainfall and our recent experiences in drought has demonstrated how quickly water storages can drop. Droughts will likely become more severe and frequent, and diversifying water sources to include rainfall independent supplies is critical to increasing water security and resilience.

We also understand that the impacts of drought are far-reaching, and the department is working closely with water authorities and across government to manage impacts in a structured and proactive way.

Warm and dry conditions experienced in Winter and Spring of 2023 highlighted the need for drought planning and preparedness to be embedded into decision making and activated as a priority when conditions deteriorate.  Several drought preparedness activities were undertaken including measures to provide operational guidance on management and allocation of water during extreme events including:

• Release of the Lower Hunter Drought Response Plan which set out how Hunter Water and the NSW Government will work together to respond to droughts in the future. The plan covers both demand and supply side measures, focus on a staged drought response to enhance preparedness by defining actions and decisions that are required pre- drought, as drought conditions develop and intensity, and during recovery.
• Improved accountability and clearer processes for regional drought management with a drought protocol being finalised, covering interagency roles and responsibilities for key activities in the ‘prepare’, ‘respond’ and ‘recover’ phases of drought.
• Additional decision support for operation of drought contingency measures in regulated water sources with coordinated Water Group and interagency feedback provided on WaterNSW’s drought contingency plans.
• Clear and consistent reporting of drought conditions via a finalised conditions reporting template
• Development of a single page summarising the drought information from various maps into a single message. This will include a drought dashboard or indicator (pending funding) that will support the summary on the page and be included in the media pack.
• Development of communication packs to ensure cohesive messaging across all channels for drought management for water sector agencies.

We have continued to undertake water conservation activities and public communications campaigns focusing on finding and fixing leaks, replacing appliances with more water efficient options and providing information on waterwise behaviours.

The department is working in collaboration with Sydney Water to develop a Water Conservation Plan. A review of ‘BASIX water’ – the water component of the NSW building sustainability Index (BASIX) is also underway and a summary of the key findings from the review will be available on our website by the end of the year.