Centre for Comparative Water Policies and Laws
The
driest state in the driest continent on Earth.
What better place to form the Centre for Comparative Water Policies and Laws.
The Centre undertakes major socio-legal research on sustainable development law and policy for corporations, national and international governments.
It evaluates organisational structures, policy transitions and makes law reform suggestions on freshwater sources such as ground, surface, storm and recycled water and conjunctive use arrangements between these in Australia.
Members have worked on statutory water plans, sustainability levies, water trading, carbon trading and policy conflicts in an era of climate change adaptation.
Major Research Projects:
Members of CCWPL presently are Chief investigators in an ARC Centre
of Excellence for Groundwater Research and Training, 2009 to 2014. The
centre members have worked in the CRC Irrigation Futures, CRC Water Quality
and CRC Freshwater Ecology. These are some of our past projects:
- System harmonisation for water laws and policies case studies in NSW and SA (CRC Irrigation Futures), Key Researchers: Professor Jennifer McKay and Dr Ganesh Keremane
- Law reform in natural resources management in Australia (ARC Centre of Excellence), Chief Investigator: Professor Jennifer McKay
- Human rights and water reform in Indo-Gangetic basin (International Water Management Institute, India), Key Researchers: Professor Jennifer McKay, Dr Ganesh Keremane and Dr Bharat Sharma.
History
The CCWPL Centre was established in 1998 in the former School of Law and
Legal Practice, as the Water Policy and Law Group (WPLG). It is a
multi-disciplinary endeavour comprising lawyers, engineers and scientists as
well as researchers from other divisions of the University of South
Australia.
The CCWPL is recognised as one of Australia’s leading national and
international research Centres and is the only research establishment
engaged in comparative water law and policy research in Australia.
The Centre is a research concentration of the Hawke Research Institute for
Sustainable Societies. The CCWPL has research affiliates in 20 countries and
has assisted State, Federal and International governments on water policy
and law issues.
The CCWPL has had eleven PhD graduates in the last seven years with many more
in progress. Three of the last four have won prizes for best thesis from
University of South Australia, Australian Water Association and CRC
Irrigation Futures.