Collaborating globally to future proof Australia’s water resources

How do you effectively manage the ever-evolving supply and demand challenges of water resources? 

The Murray–Darling Basin is of significant environmental, cultural, and economic value to Australia. 40% of Australia’s agricultural produce comes from the Basin, contributing $24 billion to the Australian economy every year.

The challenges posed by competing water use applications and climate change are increasing the risk that water demand from the Basin may outstrip the supply, meaning water may not be able available when communities need it.

Our team of water regulation and policy experts worked closely with all stakeholders to help our client develop an approach to improving understanding of how much water is used across the Basin so that it can be used effectively across all sectors reliant on water.

We developed a regulatory plan to increase metering compliance

Understanding water usage is the first step in being able to effectively manage supply and demand challenges. However, across the region, the uptake on meter telemetry has been slow, and is not mandated in some Government areas.

This low uptake results in a lack of real-time information being sent to system operators, managers, and Governments, hindering their ability to make informed decisions about the best approaches to managing the supply-demand balance.  

Our team were able to draw on our global expertise and comparators to advise the client to establish a robust policy and regulatory agenda.

We recommended the adoption of a nationally consistent approach to metering and compliance which covered the role of telemetry and its technical standards, as well as the priorities of the Commonwealth to accelerate the uptake of telemetry in the Basin.

We defined processes to facilitate the uptake of metering telemetry, enabling a consistent approach across jurisdictions to metering compliance and technical standards

We identified the required capability within delivery agencies and the private sector through the introduction of effective regulatory management and reporting. We provided several recommendations on further priority solutions to be progressed to the feasibility stage that would support metering uptake.

Finally, we developed a solution to enable stakeholders to more effectively manage water usage in the region

We developed a framework and approach for an interim solution that balanced different user needs and increased reliance on data-driven decision-making.  Our work set out a roadmap of high-level processes and user requirements which can be used to develop future compliance solutions.

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