Water Industry Planning

The Minister for Water Resources oversees water service industry supply and demand and the Department assists the Minister with these responsibilities. This involves monitoring the supply and demand process and developing policies to address weaknesses. A broader vision of water industry planning is currently being developed to cater for the state's future water needs.

Great Southern Water Industry Strategic Plan

We recently initiated a program aimed at developing regional water supply planning to satisfy demand. The Great Southern Region has been identified as the first region in which to develop a water supply services framework. Information regarding the economic value of the allocation of water for different uses will be used in conjunction with a supply capacity assessment to identify options for meeting the future water supply service needs for the region.

The key objectives of the project are to:

• identify areas where there may be inadequate water supply services based on demand projections and current (and planned) water supply capacities,
• develop strategies to manage identified inefficient or unsustainable (high volume water use, low value) commercial uses of water,
• identify and assess opportunities for water recycling and water transfers (primarily intra-regional transfers), and
• identify and assess options and suitable institutional arrangements for increasing supply capacity.

Nilgin Service Company

The Economic Regulation Authority (as the licensing authority) and the Water Corporation have been funded by the Department to provide the Minister for Water Resources with a report on the Nilgin community's future water provision service options, presumably the transfer of the operation to the Water Corporation.