Almost half of audited water users overdraw their water account
The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) is continuing to monitor compliance across NSW to address the issue of water users overdrawing their water accounts.
Audits from the 2020-21 financial year revealed more than half of audited accounts were being used correctly, while remaining water users were overdrawing from their water accounts.
NRAR’s Director of Water Regulation, Graeme White, said that it is an offence to overdraw a water account, and that tackling overdrawn accounts is one of NRAR’s regulatory priorities.
“Water accounts are like a bank account, not a credit card. You can't take more out of them than you have in them. It's vital you know how much water you have available to use,” Mr White said.
“It’s a common misconception that you can purchase water after you’ve pumped. That’s not true, you have committed an offence by overdrawing your account.
“When you take more than your allocation you are taking water from the environment, negatively affecting dependent ecosystems and restricting access to water for users who have followed the rules.
Data from our overdrawn accounts audit program in FY 20-21 showed that many users were doing the right thing. However, a considerable number of minor breaches and a small number of serious breaches occurred.
Out of 263 audits:
- no breach was found in 149 cases
- 101 accounts had been overdrawn to a minor degree, these water users were given advice and information
- 13 cases resulted in more serious enforcement action, including 12 formal warnings, 9 official cautions and 17 fines.
Some cases from the audit program involved significant breaches and resulted in NRAR taking further regulatory action, including one enforceable undertaking which resulted in a total payment of $125,000 to NRAR and $80,000 for a community project, as well as other conditions.
“Don’t overdraw your account: make sure you have sufficient water before pumping, and only do so in line with your licence and approval conditions,” said Mr White.
“It’s also important to make sure you keep your water account balance up to date by entering any outstanding meter reads or non-metered water take into iWAS, WaterNSW's’ online water accounting system.
“Although we believe most water users want to do the right thing and are following the rules, we will take action against those who continue to break them.
“Some of the ways we can respond to breaches include stop-work orders, enforceable undertakings, penalty notices, licence suspension, or imposing a penalty of up to five times the value of the water taken.”
“Not knowing the rules doesn’t excuse non-compliance,” said Mr White.
Water users can check the conditions attached to their water access licence and works approval on the NSW Water Register, available on the WaterNSW website.
