The South Coast Regional Water Strategy is now in its third year since implementation in November 2022. The South Coast Regional Water Strategy identifies the critical strategic challenges we need to tackle over the coming decades, as well as the priorities and actions that will set us up to respond to these challenges.
The strategy identifies three key priorities:
- take a holistic approach to land and water management
- ensure water resource development and use is sustainable and equitable
- prepare for future climatic extremes.
The South Coast Regional Water Strategy is delivering important projects to improve water security for towns, industry, Aboriginal groups and the environment. The strategy identifies 34 immediate initiatives to respond to priority challenges for communities and the environment. To date, 28% of initiatives have been completed, 33% are in progress, and 22% have transitioned into long-term business-as-usual activities. These initiatives are improving planning and supporting better preparedness for drought.
Key areas of progress to date include:
Priority 1: Take a holistic approach to land and water management
- Preparing an integrated catchment management program to improve the way land and water is managed to achieve better water quality and other environmental outcomes.
- Established Regional Aboriginal Water Committees as part of the commitment to ensure Aboriginal peoples have a strong, informed and respected voice in water planning and management in NSW.
Priority 2: Ensure water resource development and use is sustainable and equitable
- Developed and released a model and data for the Shoalhaven valley to improve our understanding of how coastal estuaries may respond to saltwater intrusion from future sea level changes to support long-term water planning.
Priority 3: Prepare for future climatic extremes
- Construction at the Bega Water Treatment Plant is complete, with final project components still to be delivered before the project is officially closed out.
- Investigating ways to shore up water security for Bermagui for decades to come through a $3 million investment from the state and the Australian Government’s National Water Grid Fund.