We provide the information and understanding needed to guide planning and decisions for the best management of the State's water resources.
To do that, we monitor stream flow and water quality in the State's rivers, provide advice on the availability, distribution and quality of groundwater, and assess and provide advice on the availability, distribution and quality of those resources to support state development.
Monitoring our water resources also provides us with the information we need to ensure that they are not being unacceptably impacted on by human activity.
A reliable supply of water underpins any form of development. In a state as dry as Western Australia, it is not surprising that the issue of water supply takes on a particular emphasis. Massive effort has been ongoing for several decades to learn enough about the State's water resources to advise decision makers about how development can occur.
We need to know where water exists and of what quality it is. This includes monitoring of stream flow and water quality in the State's rivers. It also entails exploration and measuring of groundwater, which in many areas presents the only potential source for water needs. Western Australia is unlike most other Australian states in this regard and faces particular challenges in tapping and managing this resource, which, by its nature is prone to contamination from overlying land uses.
Monitoring water resources also provides us with the information we need to ensure that resources are not being unacceptably impacted on by human activity. By understanding the resource sufficiently, we are able to develop scientifically sound management strategies.
Providing information and understanding
In cooperation with local, State and Federal groups, we use a wide variety of techniques to collect and interpret information and to transfer that information to water managers and the community, including:
- measuring and monitoring the location, quality and quantity of ground and surface water resources
- assessing water resources and providing advice on the availability, distribution and quality of the groundwater and surface water resources of the State to support state development
- conducting research and environmental investigations on salinity and impacts of developments, and specific groundwater, river and estuary investigations into contamination and other issues
- making water information available to those who need it.
To provide feedback email waterquality@water.wa.gov.au.