Protect our groundwater for the environment and food production

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The current ‘first in-first served’ water allocation policy is not delivering fair or sustainable water use in Western Australia, and must be changed as soon as possible.

The current policy favours big mining companies who use water wastefully, while the environment and food production are left high and dry.

This system is failing to balance the needs of the environment and water users in a sustainable way, and is out of step with community expectations on how water should be allocated and used in WA.

I call on the State Government to develop a new water allocation policy that:

Ensures that adequate water is set aside to support ecosystems and biodiversity, plus a 30% additional environmental water reserve;
Prioritises the environment and food production over mining;
Requires mining companies to recycle water and prevent wastage before any water allocations are granted;
Takes account of future climate projections and water contamination threats when allocating water resources;
Corrects past water allocation decisions that allow unsustainable water use (including those covered by State Agreement Acts).

With so much of our state dependent on groundwater, it is totally unacceptable to prioritise the mining companies over the environment and food production. An auction system, as has been proposed, will not prevent mining companies taking water ahead of farmers and regional communities.

Our state’s water must be allocated on the basis of individual merit, with environmental and agricultural requirements put first. I also request that the new policy be applied retrospectively, to correct unsustainable water allocation decisions of the past – such as the wasteful water use by the collie coal industry.

Any new plan must also take into account future water scarcity brought about by climate change and potential environmental threats, including the threat to groundwater posed by gas fracking activities.

Please take this opportunity to create a new water allocation system that is fairer, more equitable and sustainable for all West Australians.

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Without groundwater in Western Australia we cannot produce food, and our ecosystems cannot survive. Yet the State Government are giving away billions of litres of our precious groundwater for free to the mining industry under a water allocation policy that prioritises mining over the environment and food production.

The State Government’s ‘first in, first served’ policy means that big mining companies can drain our aquifers for free while the environment and family farms struggle in the dust.

Recently, a single mine was allocated nearly 90% of an entire Mid-West Aquifer, (5 billion litres of water per year for free) to wash iron ore while farmers in the region will no longer have access to groundwater for food production.

The Collie coal industry uses nearly 50 billion litres of groundwater every year - more water than the combined inflow in to into all of Perth’s dams in 2010. The polluting coal companies pay nothing for this water, while the natural ecosystems in the region suffer and farmers are unable to access water for irrigation.

These water allocation decisions are the result of a broken policy that must be urgently changed.

Now is our chance to send a message to the people who make the decisions.

Environment Minister Hon. Bill Marmion has released a review into WA’s water allocation system. For the first time in decades there is now a real chance for serious changes to be made to how the state allocates our dwindling water resources.

Send a message to Minister Marmion and Premier Bartlett – tell them that we need a water allocation system that puts the environment and food producers first.