Water’s a worry the world over
by Vincent Ciccarello
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It’s easy to dismiss Australian water policy as a basket case but Professor Jennifer McKay believes we’re leading the rest of the world.
Water, it seems, is the topic on everybody’s lips.
This year’s World Expo in Zaragoza, Spain, has as its theme Water and Sustainable Development and, with it, a special program of events that is bringing together thousands of the world’s leading water experts to consider, debate and develop policies to protect the Earth’s most precious resource.
Zaragoza also recently hosted two parallel, high-level events – the 6th Biennial Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy and an international conference, Water Management in Federal and Federal-Type Countries.
Among the experts at all three events was Professor Jennifer McKay, Director of UniSA’s Centre for Comparative Water Policies and Laws, who was a guest speaker in the Expo’s week devoted to the Economy and Finance of Water and at the conference.
She says the overwhelming consensus to emerge from the meetings was that privatised "water markets" are not the solution to the world’s water management problems.
"People recognise that regulated markets exist and can help short-term adjustments but they felt that the longer term view has to be taken by governments to protect the environment. The question then becomes one of the style of government regulation and the balance between centralised and local level water plans," Prof McKay said.
"The general view was that no one should be allowed to privatise a basic human right such as water. And there was even strong antipathy from many countries that believe governments should not abrogate their responsibility to the environment."
Prof McKay said that there is a need for regulation in order to achieve environmental protection objectives; once met, markets can then play a role in the reallocation of water surpluses.
"It is debatable whether ‘water markets’ actually exist anyway. Most examples are really a system of regulation mixed in with some privatisation."
The Australian model, established in 2004 by the Federal Government, of a consumptive pool of water shared by farmers was an example of how such a system might work.
"It’s brilliant policy," Prof McKay said.
"This process is the way forward but, as it is implemented, it is likely to change agriculture in Australia towards more annual crops. This will not always be the best solution and some further community debate must arise on the type of crops that we wish to produce. If we intend to support crops such as grapes and oranges, then these growers need more reliable water supplies of higher security."
She believes that for sustainable water management policies to endure, they should be managed centrally but delivered locally.
"Australian farmers have tended to work in commodity rather than regional groups. The National Resource Management boards in 56 regions across Australia are now providing a forum for people to work together to ensure everyone’s needs are met.
"In some places this is resulting in improved accountability for water use under forestry which does not irrigate but where trees act as pumps, often lowering groundwater. An example is the southeast of South Australia where the water planning process and the water markets have prompted an innovative policy to require forestry to account for water use and to buy an allocation.
"The new Water Act 2007 as passed by the Commonwealth Government is unique in creating a platform for a plan for the Murray Darling Basin that will be based on State regional water plans and will consider the wider impact of these plans on other areas and over a long time. The implementation of both the Act and the basin plan is the next step."
US water policy experts are certainly taking note. Prof McKay has been invited to brief a select forum of VIPs about Australia’s sustainable water management when she is in California next month as a Fulbright Senior Fellow.