Water

Effective management of the NT’s water resources is fundamental to sustaining healthy communities, protecting ecosystems and preserving First Nations’ peoples’ stewardship of Country and connection to culture. Groundwater is the lifeblood of the NT and its security is paramount.

 

Principles

The NT Greens believe:

  1. Access to safe, clean and adequate drinking water is a fundamental human right. 
  2. The NT Government has the responsibility to ensure all communities have safe drinking water and water quality is properly monitored.
  3. The NT’s catchments, rivers, wetlands and groundwater systems underpin the health of our communities, the environment, and First Nations peoples’ connection to culture and Country.
  4. We have a responsibility to protect and maintain the ecosystems which depend on river and groundwater systems to survive.
  5. Current extraction and water management in the NT is unsustainable and is not aligned with best practice. 
  6. The NT’s water resources are under threat from unsustainable development which places demand on surface and groundwater systems.
  7. The changing climate places increasing pressure on already limited water supplies in the NT and will pose new problems for water resource management into the future.
  8. Government decision making relating to water management must include and reflect the rights and needs of First Nations people through community participation and public accountability.
  9. First Nations people have rights and responsibilities to care for water on Country and must have the opportunity to fully participate in water planning and catchment management.
  10. Water justice must be at the forefront of policy making with a focus on returning and strengthening water rights for First Nations people.
  11. Water resource management needs to be undertaken at a catchment level and integrated with long-term regional planning.
  12. Water resource management must accord with best practice and be informed by, and evolve with, the best available scientific information whilst including cultural knowledge of water systems.

Aims

The NT Greens want:

Water laws 

1. Comprehensive reform of the NT’s water laws and planning arrangements to ensure:

a. water is allocated in a sustainable way, which takes into account impacts at a catchment level and the link between surface and groundwater systems;

b. First Nations cultural connection to water is respected, acknowledged, and protected above industry demands; 

c. the long-term impacts of a changing climate are taken into account;

d. the cumulative impacts of proposals are assessed; 

e. water extraction rules adhere to and evolve with best practice and the best available scientific knowledge; and

f. principles of ecologically sustainable development, including the precautionary principle, are expressly enshrined and adopted.

2. Laws for water allocation which:

a. recognise and protect environmental water to preserve the environmental values and health of water ecosystems; 

b. recognise and protect cultural values; and

c. enshrine roles for Traditional Owners in water governance.

3. A Safe Drinking Water Act based on the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, which allow communities to hold government to account when standards are not met.

4. Rigorous environmental impact assessments of developments involving significant water extraction prior to any water licence applications being made.


 

Water allocation and water licencing

5. Water allocation plans to be:

a. transparent;

b. Traditional Owner and First Nations-led;

c. subject to meaningful public consultation and independent review;

d. based on the best available scientific information; and

e. adaptive, reflecting changes to the sustainable yield in any given year.

 

6. Water extraction licences to be: 

a. consistent with water allocation plans

b. made within sustainable extraction limits, determined on the basis of the best available scientific information;

c. informed by regularly monitoring the extent of the resource and the health of dependent ecosystems;

d. granted only after sufficient mapping is undertaken of the relevant water resource, groundwater dependent ecosystems, cultural values and sacred sites; and

e. subject to a cost based on the amount used.

 

  1. Integrated regional catchment management to ensure sufficient environmental water flows across all catchments.

 

Groundwater

  1. Limits on groundwater extraction which is sustainable, based on the best available and independent science and which meets the water requirements of groundwater dependent ecosystems in the context of a changing climate.
  2. Stronger protections for groundwater dependent ecosystems and groundwater dependent cultural values such that neither can be destroyed as a result of a water licence.

Surface water take

  1. Limits on surface water take through water allocation plans which have a legislative basis and are based on the best available and independent science.
  2. Recognition of key rivers as living entities with stewardship led by Traditional Owners and First Nations communities.

 

Glossary

The precautionary principle: Under section 19 of the Environment Protection Act 2019 (NT), the precautionary principle states ‘If there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation’ and that ‘Decision-making should be guided by a careful evaluation to avoid serious or irreversible damage to the environment wherever practicable; and an  assessment  of  the  risk-weighted  consequences  of  various  options’.