Bringing water into focus – a change of lens

National Water Week hosted by the Australian Water Association provides a platform to promote the conversation on how we manage, use and value water. This year’s theme is bring water into focus: an opportunity to encourage people to see water not just as a resource, but as the invisible thread connecting everything in our lives.

At first glance this might conjure thoughts of awareness of household water use and personal water saving tips, but it is also worth exploring the broader notion of what the sector is doing as a whole to help bring water into focus. As the collective architects and stewards of the sector, how effectively are we utilising the limited political and community attention water receives to prioritise the right things and deliver value, and how can we drive greater impact into the future?

For well over a decade, countless reports and articles have opened with a similar stanza outlining the major threats and challenges to providing safe, secure and reliable supply of water (across its many uses) in an economically efficient and environmentally sustainable way. Think climate change, population growth, ageing assets, strengthened environmental regulations and sustainability. What were once emerging challenges and drivers are now embedded issues that the sector must deal with – from farmers, to utilities, to business and residential customers.

1.           Water in the spotlight

Growth and overallocation of water resources over several decades, followed by the Millennium Drought shocked Australia into action, from Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) reforms to the first wave of climate-independent water supply for our major cities. Water enjoyed the political spotlight and the spend that went with it. There are many lessons from this experience and things that could be done differently and better, but it is reasonable to say that aside from brief flashpoints, for example water theft in MDB, short but extreme drought through 2017-2019, the ACCC markets inquiry, water has not enjoyed the same focus since the Millennium drought broke in 2009-10.

Looking at the Murray-Darling Basin, the 1990s saw the move to cap and trade systems which have helped to manage climate risk and variability and the early 2010s saw the bulk of water recovery achieved under the Basin Plan. The cap and trade system and reforms to the MDB agreement help ensure that the system runs in ultra dry conditions and protects water for critical needs while allocating risk to users who can use the water market to manage their own circumstances in response. In simpler terms, we have largely succeeded in developing the building blocks for a sophisticated approach to allocating water and managing risk across users in a large, complex and extremely variable system. This is still groundbreaking water resource management and coupled with high metering and compliance rates objectively makes Australia a world leader in basin-level water management.

Over the last decade, change has been more incremental and often with a lot of political capital and effort burnt relative to the progress made – from delays in finalising SDLAM projects and completing water recovery under the Basin Plan, to responding to the ACCC Water Markets Inquiry. Issues have been considerably more politicised and harder to resolve, and the gains incremental at best.

The point here is not to point fingers or lay blame but to draw attention to the pace of change and relative prioritisation of water on the policy agenda and the political willingness, investment and drive that sits alongside it. Big changes occur through tight windows of opportunity. Next year will see the 2026 Basin Plan Review which will inform the future direction of the Basin Plan. However, it will also be the political appetite and profile of water at the time that shapes the scale of ambition and the resources available to drive change in response.

Turning to the urban water sector there are also parallels. Major investments to secure supply through the Millennium Drought were followed by a period of relative stability, particularly when it comes to customer bills which have effectively remained flat for over a decade. Utilities reined in their capital programs and sweated their assets to ensure bill shock from the last round of desalination plants was managed, despite record low interest rates (and cost of capital). However, this was never going to be a sustainable long-term strategy given the age profile of the water and wastewater assets across Australia and the rapid urban growth being observed. More climate independent sources of supply are needed in many urban centres, and investment will be required to ensure that existing assets don’t fail, causing interruptions to customers and the community. Most obviously, new urban developments need investment to be connected to essential services and ease housing supply shortages.

The urban water sector is now leaning into the challenges of large increases in forecast capital spend likely to last for multiple decades. Bringing governments, customers, regulators, staff and the construction sector along on this next wave of investment in the resilience of the critical services is now more important than ever.

If the goal is still to deliver the outcomes most Australians expect from the urban water services, then there is a need to spend more. There is a need to raise the profile and value of what is essentially an investment in the resilience for critical services to help support acceptance of price increases, and the water sector needs to deliver effectively and efficiently in response. This includes clearly understanding risk, getting the timing right, focusing on the priorities, and demonstrating results in the years ahead.

2. The need for increased exposure

There is no simple solution to bring water into focus as an aid to the issues and challenges raised above but it is worth thinking about what can be done to help elevate water in the national conversation.

Firstly, the sector has multiple success stories which can and should be told, while recognising the problems that remain. It is easy to forget that prior investments in governance, regulation, service delivery and infrastructure have delivered significant value to Australian society, the environment and the economy. These reforms align well with best practice adaptation policy and set Australia up well to deal with climate change. Rather than waiting for the next major drought, there is opportunity to better tell the story about what has been achieved – bringing water into a positive focus and showcasing the return from historic investments while building the case for protecting and advancing on what has been done ahead of the next crisis. There is scope for this to raise the standard of conversation within the water sector as well as with outside stakeholders and the broader population.

Secondly, while successes should be recognised, the sector cannot rest on its laurels. It needs to learn from experience and plan ahead – investing with a clear view of future risks, opportunities, costs, and benefits, and delivering these investments openly and effectively. This will look different to what it has previously due to the factors shaping Australia today and will require a conscious effort from the sector to connect the dots.

3. Refocusing the discussion

Finally, in light of the preceding points, there is an opportunity to think more strategically about how water connects to the major issues shaping Australia and how to better place water into wider conversations.

• Climate risk and adaptation is closely tied to water: The National Climate Risk Assessment (NCRA) 2025 highlights how many climate hazards and risk manifest through the water cycle from changes in rainfall, flooding, drought and aridity. Climate driven water risks will be both chronic and acute and climate adaptation means carefully considering both what the water sector can do to build resilience across different systems and how the water sector responds to hazards and risks. As a simple example, the NCRA estimates that 2.0°C of warming could result in as much as a +70% increase in the amount of time Australia spends in drought per decade. As a nation, we need to up our game on adaptation, and water needs to be fully embedded in this conversation.  
• Water supply and the energy transition: The Australian Government has framed its economic policy around the Net Zero Transformation and Resilience and Security. Energy is a core pillar and the aim is for Australia to become a global leader in renewables. Managing energy and water needs will be an increasingly important and integrated challenge in a constrained environment, from powering increased desalination capacity to securing water supply for hydrogen production, to dealing with the ramifications of nearly a hundred years of water use in coal fired power generation. While the conversation is often skewed to the energy-side, successful transformation will depend on balancing energy and water.
• Digital infrastructure expansion: Australia is seeing significant investment in digital infrastructure and data centres to power cloud services and artificial intelligence. Amazon has pledged to invest $20bn in data centres for Sydney and Melbourne and it is estimated that demand for water from data centres in Sydney could grow from 1 per cent (at present) to 25 per cent of demand in by 2035. This exceeds Sydney’s current desalination capacity and highlights the importance of where these centres are built, how we plan for and invest in water security, and who pays for it. It may also provide new opportunities and confidence to finance and deliver major supply augmentations.
• Housing supply and affordability issues: Governments across Australia are looking to increase the supply of housing, often through greenfield development which is driving significant capital costs for water and wastewater services. There is an important role for planning and coordination to deliver efficient outcomes, avoid delays and ensure sufficient capital to secure supply and build out networks.

All of these items are major issues that are impacting society, shaping the economy, making headlines and holding attention. There is a need to ensure water is not taken for granted or lost in the mix but rather seen as both a key enabler and a key risk to achieving desired outcomes across the board – from climate resilience, to economic growth, to secure, affordable and reliable household supply. By extension this requires avoiding complacency, leaning into the risks and opportunities available, investing ahead of the curve and avoiding the more costly route of reacting to failure.

Bringing water into focus now – especially given that much of Australia is currently drought-free – requires multiple lenses and a critical appraisal of how we place water in the national conversation. There is a need to consider the wider systems and connection points with other sectors that water interacts with and think strategically about how to leverage this to drive the effort, investment and change required to keep pace.