The National Water Commission has released a report documenting
- the location of significant intercepting activities that fall outside the current entitlement framework
- the potential rate of expansion of each activity over various time periods
- and estimates of water usage of each activity in water management areas used in the Australian Water Resources Report 2005
The report includes definition and description of activities that intercept surface water and groundwater and identifies the following activities for further analysis
- overland flows
- farm dams
- stock and domestic bores
- plantations
- peri-urban development
This project has analysed the available data throughout Australia in order to quantify the level of development of each of these activities according to the definition of intercepting activities. The impact of the baseline assessment was then estimated, as were projections of impacts for the years 2015 and 2030.
The report shows that the total volume of water unaccounted for as a result of land use activities outside our current water entitlement regimes and planning frameworks equates to almost one quarter of all the entitled water on issue in Australia.
The report is located on the NWC website and can be accessed here
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