Issue briefs

Recurring issues from recent reviews of inland unregulated water sharing plans

• Issue brief 1: Need to set numeric extraction limits and assess compliance (March 2023)
• Issue brief 2: Ensuring LTAAELs are sustainable (March 2023)

We review NSW water sharing plans periodically to assess whether they are achieving their purpose and to recommend changes required to deliver better outcomes.

In the last two years, we have reviewed seven plans for inland unregulated rivers. That is, water sources in inland NSW where there are no major dams or other significant infrastructure to control water flows.

Our reviews of these inland unregulated water sharing plans identified many, recurring issues that we consider create material risks that the plans may not be achieving their objectives – including protecting the environmental health of the water sources by ensuring water extraction levels are sustainable in the long term.

We are publishing a series of issues briefs to explain the recurring issues we have identified in these recent reviews (see above).

We will publish more issues briefs on other key issues in the coming months.

More information about our role and how we conduct our reviews of water sharing plans can be found here.