NRAR is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with the non-urban water metering rules.
The NSW government is rolling out the metering rules in stages to better measure water take in the state, make water use fairer, and build community confidence in water management.
We continue to work closely with WaterNSW and the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW DCCEEW) to raise awareness of the metering rules and educate water users about their obligations.
Visit our metering page to find out more about the new metering rules and if they apply to you.
Compliance rates
We monitor and assess compliance with the metering rules throughout NSW. We use these rates to target our education and enforcement efforts.
We are currently updating the way we report on metering compliance. The changes we are making are to ensure our approach:
- is as consistent as possible across the state
- draws on data from both the water licensing system and our on-ground work
- reflects our prioritisation of high-volume, high-risk water users
Download our metering fact sheet
Learn more about our compliance approach to metering
Metering regulations - NRAR compliance approach (PDF 188.5KB)Monitoring and enforcing passed deadline groups
Water users in the 2020 and 2021 groups have both had over a year since their compliance dates passed to take action and we have begun taking enforcement action for breaches of the metering rules.
- For the 2020 group, we are investigating works that are still non-compliant and taking appropriate enforcement action where necessary. Those who do not comply will face escalated enforcement action, with prosecution and stop work orders a possibility if non-compliance persists in this group of high-risk water users.
- For the 2021 group, we are continuing to conduct checks and urge all water users to be compliant. This includes escalation of seriousness after contact from NRAR’s compliance officers.
- For the 2023 group, we are conducting checks and urge all water users to be compliant. Many in this group have Government-owned meters. In this circumstance, WaterNSW is responsible for ensuring the meters meet requirements. You can read more about government-owned meters here
We understand that some water users have faced barriers to compliance, such as shipping delays and limited availability of installers. We are a firm but fair regulator. If a licence holder has faced challenges in complying by their deadline and can show evidence of their efforts to comply, we will take that into consideration.
Failure to comply with the metering rules may be considered a criminal offence. Examples of serious actions we can take to enforce the rules include stop work orders, license suspension or prosecution.