Strategy Launched To Secure Water Supply

Member for Kiama Gareth Ward MP today welcomed the NSW Government’s launch of its NSW Water Strategy to guide water management to 2040 and deliver resilient and sustainable water resources across our State.

Mr Ward said that the Strategy has innovation at its heart, looking at new technologies, including recycled water and stormwater harvesting, to diversify supply and ensure we’re ready for the water challenges of the future.

“Our population is growing, and in the next 20 years we’ll have nearly three million more people living in NSW with many of those in our Illawarra and South Coast region and we must prepare for more extreme weather events such as droughts and floods,” he said.

“This Strategy looks at all aspects of water management, including rainfall-independent supply solutions, water conservation and river health.

“In the next 12 months, the NSW Government will focus on water use efficiency, conservation and leakage reduction in our cities, towns and regional centres and deliver a new State-wide water efficiency framework.

"The NSW Water Strategy is a good start to securing safe and reliable water for our industries and environment, now and across the next two decades,” Mr Ward said.

“The recent drought brought about creative and innovative ideas about infrastructure investment, with many communities having to source different means of increasing supply for our local communities.

“This Strategy looks at our challenges and successes at a State level and how we implement solutions to secure our future,” Mr Ward concluded.

The NSW Water Strategy has been finalised to include the views of stakeholders and the community following public exhibition of the draft earlier this year.

It is accompanied by an implementation plan which charts the immediate steps the NSW Government will be taking towards delivering its goals.

For more information and to read the NSW Water Strategy, please visit the website at: https://water.dpie.nsw.gov.au/nsw-water-strategy.