WATER
Priority Issues:

• Water Quality
• Sustainable Use of Water Resources
• Decline in condition of Wetlands
• Decline in condition of Rivers
  

Surface Water Quality decline is caused by:

• Inputs of sediments after high rainfall, nutrients, salinity, bacterial contamination, debris and litter, heavy metals and chemicals.
• The removal of riparian vegetation or its decline in condition through uncontrolled stock access can reduce the stability of stream banks and the capacity to intercept overland flow. As a result, sediments, nutrients and pesticides in run-off can enter waterways.
• Heavy metal pollution from mining.
  

Declining quality of groundwater systems can be attributed to:

• Both point and diffuse sources such as septic tanks, landfill sites, agricultural chemicals and fertilisers and leaking fuel storage tanks.
  These issues may be a result of historical deficiencies in strategic water quality planning between stakeholders, ineffective institutional arrangements or an insufficient knowledge about integrated water quality management.
  

The main causes underlying unsustainable use of water resources include:

• A lack of coordinated strategic planning
  ineffective institutional frameworks
• Inappropriate management practices..
• Insufficient data on the condition of water resources and trends.

Activities leading to unsustainable use of water resources include:

• Over-pumping and overdevelopment of groundwater resources
• Land clearance - as it increases deep drainage of water to groundwater that can then result in the flushing of salt into surface waters, and soil salinity and waterlogging.

Decline in condition of Wetlands is caused by:

• Government, industry, farmers and community groups undertaking unregulated works in and around wetlands, such as excavating banks, draining wetlands to provide more pasture or removing riparian vegetation
  Alteration of natural flow regimes from upper catchments

Decline in condition of Rivers is caused by:

• Inappropriate land management practices (including on adjoining waterways)
• A lack of coordinated management
  ineffective arrangements and inadequate knowledge relating to the use and appropriate management of rivers.
• Changes in flow regime and changes in water quality. Changes to the flow regime are caused by modified catchment land use (impacting on surface run-off and groundwater discharge); water harvesting (diversion works, pump stations, dams); regulation (power supply, harvesting, temporary and permanent modifications to the channel); and return of drainage from agricultural, urban and industrial land uses.
• Changes in catchment land use, return drainage (agricultural, urban and industrial) and changes to groundwater discharge impact on water quality.