The Department of Water has developed the State Waterways Initiative as a strategic plan for waterways management to 2011.
The Initiative includes actions for improving waterways planning and management, identifying priorities for waterways management, supporting measures to protect environmentally significant waterways and supporting waterway restoration.
The actions will address two management priorities, including preventing and minimising degradation of waterways and repairing degraded waterways.
The Initiative also defines our waterways management role under the two management priorities:
1. Prevent and minimise degradation of waterways by:
- Policy development and planning
- Management
- ecological water requirements and environmental water provisions
- flood risk plans and waterways management plans
- authorising bed and bank disturbance (under the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act, 1914)
- recommending conditions for land use and development proposals through the statutory referral system
- management of high-value systems that are outside the conservation estate.
- Assessment
- state-wide method for prioritising waterways management
- investigating and monitoring waterways health, quality and quantity
- evaluating trends
- estuary remediation and algal bloom management techniques
- responding to fish deaths.
2. Repairing waterways
We support river restoration, build community capacity to undertake river restoration, and contribute to river action plans through funding programs.
The funding programs include the State Natural Resource Management Transition Year 2008/09 program and the Commonwealth Government's Caring for Our Country program.
River restoration includes engineering works for erosion management, riffle and fishway construction, fencing, and the restoration of riparian vegetation (situated on the bank of a river or other water area).