'Poor management': regulator in the dark over water use
Authorities are not monitoring how much water is being pumped from the ground in one of Australia's driest states or if it's taken legally, a report says.
Western Australia's auditor-general found that the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) was not enforcing the conditions on the more than 12,000 water licences.
Often handed out for free, the licences allow more than four trillion litres of water to be extracted annually - enough to fill more than 1.7 million Olympic swimming pools.
"DWER is not doing anywhere near enough to adequately protect our water resources, with compliance activities in recent years reactive and ad hoc," Auditor-General Caroline Spencer said.
"Poor management, over extraction and illegal taking of water all threaten the long-term sustainability of our groundwater supplies and create an uneven playing field for operators who are doing the right thing."
The report, tabled in state parliament on Wednesday, said the department's compliance checking activities have decreased over the past three years.
Most are desktop reviews of unverified meter readings, with information reported by licence holders.
On-the-ground inspections decreased by 67 per cent during the audit period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2024, weakening the department's understanding of compliance.
"Only five per cent of licence holders were visited in that time (and) in 2023-24, half of the regions saw no inspections all," Ms Spencer said.
There is also no effective deterrence of future non-compliance because they are not prioritised for investigation.
It's the third report by the Office of the auditor-general that has found issues with the planning and monitoring of water use in WA.
During the three years of the reporting period, 87 per cent of potential incidents of non-compliance were never assigned to a staff member to investigate.
There was also no effective guidance to help staff assess the severity or impact of non-compliance.
The report said this risked inconsistent outcomes or ineffective enforcement options."(The regulator) needs to improve its enforcement approach, including more timely actions to address potential incidents of non-compliance and to better deal with and deter future breaches," Ms Spencer said.
The opposition accused the government of negligence.
"This is a staggering failure of oversight ... the government has no idea whether it's being used lawfully or sustainably," water spokesman Peter Rundle said.
The department has been contacted for comment.
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