Office of Water Security – telling our story

The Office of Water Security (OWS) is a small and dedicated team tasked with leading and coordinating strategic water policy and initiatives to underpin water security for all Territorians. They are leading the implementation of the Territory Water Plan (TWP) and its priority actions across the Northern Territory (NT). This includes leading significant water policy development, ongoing community engagement and building partnerships across government and the water sector to enable smooth and effective delivery.

Key highlights that the team have shared recently include the work undertaken on the development of safe drinking water legislation, the establishment of the Remote Water Team, projects to understand aboriginal cultural values of water and improving water planning through increased participation by Aboriginal Territorians, and most recently the release of the release of the NT Water Demand Strategy.

The OWS has released the first Annual Progress Report and monitoring and Evaluation plan on the work undertaken on the delivery of the TWP in its first year.

The team was in attendance to engage with delegates at the national Dangkal Gwo’yal-wa First Nations Land and Water Management Forum held in Darwin from 27 – 29 August. The conference heard from Indigenous leaders on water and land management. The team answered water security questions at the booth including on potential future water resources charges, how to be involved in water advisory committees, who to talk to about the quality of drinking water and many more. Team members shared a range of water security information and materials to act as a reminder to people not only about the importance of water security but how to find out more information about water security for the NT.

More recently, members of the OWS and the Water Resources division attended the Voices from the Bush conference hosted by The Australian Water Association in Alice Springs from 9 - 11 September. The conference attracted over 200 delegates from across Australia and provided a very knowledgeable platform for people to connect over water including many personal stories of people’s connection to water.

On day one of the conference, Susannah Clements co-presented with Nicola Slavin from the Department of Health on the work and progress that is being made on the development of safe drinking water legislation for the NT. The Department of Health is the lead agency in the development of the legislation with support from the OWS as it is a priority action in the TWP. Cail Rayment from Territory Families, Housing and Communities presented on the progress of the multi-agency remote water team, which delivers water information forums and water infrastructure assessments for 55 remote communities to inform a water infrastructure priority list for future investment. Noel Cutmore from the OWS is deployed in the remote water team, which also includes team members from across government including the Department of Health, Power and Water Corporation and Department of Education and Training. (Image three – Voices1.jpg). This multi-agency collaboration is designed to ensure remote residents get quality information and can provide valuable feedback about their drinking water supplies that informs needs assessments across health, infrastructure, water supply and water quality service delivery areas.

On the second day of the conference Nerida Horner presented on the challenges and opportunities for achieving greater water security in the NT and how community and stakeholder engagement shaped the development of the priority areas that the OWS is delivering for the NT.

Key highlights included

• Over $60 million of new funds invested by the Australian Government National Water Grid fund into remote community water supplies
• Safe drinking water bill development significantly progressed in consultation with affected stakeholders
• Information forums and community infrastructure assessments undertaken in 11 remote communities to date
• Water supply in homelands - consultant Ekistica engaged to develop a plan to build capacity of water service providers includingtraining, education, technical support andplans
• Release of the Water Demand Management Strategy for the greater Darwin region which sets a target to reduce NTG water use 20% by 2028
• Significant progress underway on the Adelaide River Off-stream Water Storage (AROWS) pre-construction activities, including extensive community engagement and planning and approvals.

The next opportunity to share information about the activities of OWS and progress of the TWP will be at the Water in the Bush Conference on 9 October in Darwin, hosted by the Australian Water Association. Nerida Horner, and Sofija Tanevska, from the OWS will be co-presenting.

In its 35th year, Water in the Bush is the NT’s annual water conference that connects the water industry and community from across Australia to share information and knowledge about the current and future state of the NT’s water.

For more information about the OWS and the NT’s strategic plan for water security please visit the website Water Security (nt.gov.au).