A clear path to more sustainable water for NSW

The NSW Government has charted a course to maximise the sustainable reuse of water across cities and regions, with the state’s first Recycled Water Roadmap helping to boost efficiency and drought resilience for generations to come.

Water is a precious resource, and by being water-wise and recycling more water in our urban environments, we can secure water supplies to meet our needs into the future.

The Roadmap lays out a blueprint for expanding water recycling throughout NSW where it is safe, beneficial, and cost-effective to do so, and improves the policy and regulatory framework for future projects.

NSW is a national leader in the water sector with one of the most sophisticated water management systems in the world, which is already leveraging recycling for a range of non-drinking purposes – but we are ready to take the next step forward to secure our future supply.

Working closely with regulators and water utilities, the Roadmap contains 14 actions to be implemented over the next two years focusing on policy, economics, regulation, and coordination to boost recycled water delivery across the state.

These actions include:

• Always prioritising public health
• Making it easier for water utilities to assess, cost, and engage with their customers on recycled water
• Exploring bigger investment in recycled water for both drinking and non-drinking purposes across the public and private sectors
• Helping water utilities plan and future proof their supplies by considering recycled water alongside other options
• Streamlining government regulation and approvals
• Ongoing monitoring to identify new opportunities for recycled water over the next 5 years

Some of this work is already underway, with the Department leading coordination across government agencies to streamline planning and approvals for water recycling, and a Recycled Water Concierge role has been created to provide a central point of contact for key stakeholders.

The Roadmap is the culmination of two years of consultation with industry, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community representatives, public and private water utilities, environmental advocates, building on the NSW Water Strategy.

Over an extended 12-week community consultation period in 2024, the NSW Government spoke to more than 200 people through both online and in-person consultations across the state and received over 70 submissions.

More information can be found in the What we heard report (PDF, 619.1 KB)

Read the full NSW Recycled Water Roadmap (PDF, 2575.65 KB)

DCCEEW Executive Director Water Operations and Resilience Ashraf El-Sherbini said:

“With a growing population and a changing climate, it’s crystal clear we need to ramp up water recycling across NSW in the coming decades.

“We know it has to be done safely and cost-effectively, and we need to ensure we bring the community with us on the journey – the Recycled Water Roadmap delivers a clear plan for how we can achieve that.

“It’s the culmination of years of hard work and collaboration between water agencies, water utilities and other key stakeholders to find the best path forward.

“About 8 percent of Greater Sydney’s water supply is already recycled and then used for non-drinking purposes, while the rest of the state is about 13 percent which means there is plenty of room for growth and plenty of untapped potential.

“This Roadmap is the next piece of the jigsaw, setting us up for a more sustainable water future.”