The Department of Water is the lead agency for waterways management in Western Australia. The department has identified priorities for waterways management including preventing and minimising degradation of waterways and repairing degraded waterways.
The management and protection of waterways to prevent and minimise degradation is the highest priority for the department and includes:
- Policy development and planning e.g. reforming the water sources management legislation, state-wide waterways and foreshore area policies,the ecological water requirements and environmental water provisions policy and draft Western Australian floodplain management strategy
- Management e.g. development of ecological water requirements and environmental water provisions, flood risk plans, developing 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 e.g. the state-wide method for prioritising waterways management; and investigation and monitoring of waterway health, quality and quantity, evaluation of trends, estuary remediation and algal bloom management techniques and responding to fish deaths.
Further information on protecting our waterways is available on the following pages;