Water policy is not that simple

If sustainable management is to be achieved, however, there will need to be a mighty effort to stop it being swamped by interests focused on the benefits of water markets. Policies such as the NWI are unavoidably a pastiche of different influences.

In the development of the NWI, someone, somewhere, was able to argue strongly enough that they succeeded in getting environmental sustainability defined as the primary goal. But formal acknowledgement is not enough. It is crucial that researchers who understand the issues involved should make sure that this recognition is not lost amid the discussion of what is required to promote water trading.

The content of much of the discussion about the NWI since its release, however, shows that there is a real danger that this is happening. With a policy issue such as water there is a frequent demand that participants in the public debate should describe the issues in simple terms. A contrasting view is that it is more important to make people aware of their complexity.

The process of defining water as an object of management is made extraordinarily difficult by its relationship with people and society. Pressure to treat it as a commodity that can be owned and managed is strong but widely resisted. While there is a demand that water entitlements should be seen as a form of property similar to leasehold land, a comparison between the two reveals profound differences. In broad terms land stays in one place and its physical dimensions can be defined. Water, however, is like the atmosphere. The air you breathed a minute ago is now being breathed by me. Should one of us be allowed to own it?

The tension between the idea of water as private property and water as a multi-use resource - both being appropriate in particular but different circumstances - is a major factor creating the complexity of many of the current disputes about water management. To be accepted, laws and regulations relevant to water management need to take account of the characteristics of water and the varying nature of the relationships that different people and interests have with it.

Given that water is essential for life, many people insist on defining access to it as a right. Although it has many characteristics often thought of as applicable to the “environment” it is an economic asset in some of its manifestations. Water is also integral to the religious and cultural identity of many people, ranging from Indigenous Australians and Hindus to Christians, devotees of Gaia and others who just like the view.

Any attempt to control and manage such an element is always going to be threatening for many groups, particularly those marginalised by efforts to give clearer entitlements to interests able to marshal the required political power.

Governments have not yet succeeded in establishing an effective institutional framework that will protect Australian hydrological systems from continuing degradation and reduction. Some indication of what is involved is provided by a description of the characteristics typical of environmental issues such as sustainable water management compiled by the policy analyst, Stephen Dovers.

Mr Dovers argues that these characteristics make environmental sustainability problems fundamentally different from other policy issues. They occur over much longer time scales and often cut across established administrative boundaries. Poorly defined but finite limits are a common feature that is difficult to take into account within economic systems that are committed to profit in the short term and indefinite growth. Environmental systems are frequently subject to thresholds that, once crossed, result in significant loss but which are hard to predict and difficult to reverse. Major policy changes are urgently needed but there is great uncertainty about their likely effects.

Even when successful the benefits can be very long term. Ecological interconnections are complex and poorly understood. Many impacts are cumulative and interact with each other and established patterns of action can suddenly produce very different results compared with the past. As the level of anthropogenic pressure grows, it is difficult to take account of emerging ethical and moral considerations. In addition, the sheer novelty of sustainability issues makes them difficult to handle within traditional modes of management and governance.

Much of the research being done to support implementation of the NWI is concentrating on the economic dimensions of the policy. That is not surprising because there are powerful interest groups who stand to gain financially from that investment.

For the NWI to be successful, however, much of the research need is elsewhere. First, it is essential that there be large scale investment in biophysical knowledge to improve our understanding of Australian hydrological systems in all their variety.  Second, the NWI will stand or fall on the quality and capacity of the regional catchment management institutions and the regulatory and statutory framework established to develop the water plans that are its core process for reforming water management.