Eurobodalla Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy

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Eurobodalla Integrated Water Cycle Management Strategy
Executive Summary
Water is a precious natural resource essential for the maintenance of ecosystems and all human
activities. The degradation of our rivers, groundwaters and estuaries provides clear evidence that
NSW water resources are under stress. New water legislation has been introduced to protect water
for present and future generations. Integrated water cycle management is an innovative way of
managing urban water for local water utilities, which incorporates all components of urban water
services. The aim is to achieve optimum water use to reduce the human impacts on water
resources.
Introduction
Integrated water cycle management (IWCM) is an innovative way of managing the urban
water services for local water utilities. IWCM aims to combine all aspects of water
management and treat the system as an interacting whole, whereas traditional water
management looks at each component of the urban water system (water supply, sewerage,
stormwater) in isolation. With IWCM, water use is optimised while minimising impacts to the
environment and other water users.
IWCM is based on three simple questions:
What is the problem? relates to water cycle management impacts (or perceived
impacts) as well as water management problems. To answer this question
necessitates an understanding of the catchment in order to set a benchmark on the
resource needs and availability.
How do we fix the problem? looks at addressing water management problems
and requires an understanding of State Government water reform policies, which
describe key water management issues and the appropriate management
responses to them. Since there is more than one management option, a balanced
outcome planning examining the triple bottom line (TBL) of social, environmental
and financial bottom line is used to select the best overall option.
The last question, How do we know the problem is fixed? is the process by
which we confirm that all impacts are managed to the desired level, and water use
is optimised using social, economic and environmental objectives.
The structure of this report is based on answering these three fundamental questions. Part
A and Part B of the report deal with the first of these questions by identifying the issues
affecting Eurobodalla’s water services. Parts C and D then look at how the issues identified
in the first parts of the report can be managed. Finally, Part E looks at identifying measures
to ensure that the problems are fixed.