The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Australia

Australia: The Murray-Darling Basin Authority

Our vision: to achieve a healthy working basin through the

integrated management of water resources for the long-term

benefit of the Australian community

Our mission: We lead the

planning and

management of Basin

Water Resources in

collaboration with partner

governments and the

community

Presenter: Ph.D. Vitor Vieira Vasconcelos, CNPq Scholarship (Brazil)

Stockholm Environment Institute - Ayeyarwady Futures Team

On behalf of: Frederick Bouckaert – Murray Darlin Basin Authority

Stakeholder Consultation on Chindwin Futures Assessment

Monywa, 4th May 2015, Myanmar

Facts about the Murray–Darling Basin

14% of mainland Australia, I million

km2

Over 2 million peopleFederal and 5 state

governments: Qld, Vic,

ACT, NSW, SA

Contains Australia’s three longest

rivers: Murray, Darling, Murrumbidgee

50% of Australia’s irrigated

agriculture: rice, cotton,

grapes, fruit, …

16 internationally significant

wetland sites

The Murray is highly regulated and

contributes to most of the annual flows

Droughts and floods

18% of Australia’s aboriginal

people live in the MDBLong term annual average

History of History of RBO establishmentmanagement

RBO

consensus

model

RBO

centralised

model

BP implementation

Governance of MDBA

DecisionsAdvisory

Decisions

Implementation

Management

Monitoring Advisory

Decisions

Advisory

MDBA roles and responsibility

• Plan and coordinate Basin water resources

• Regulate for a healthy working basin (triple

bottom line: social/cultural, economic,

ecological)

• Evaluate and review the effectiveness of the

Basin Plan

• Operate the River Murray

• Enhance the knowledge base for a sustainable

Basin

Link with national level and other concerned agencies

• Management tools for national water reform include:

– Maximum ‘cap’ on water use (2750GL to be reclaimed for

environment in Basin Plan)

– Water markets (despite 70% of it being recovered, irrigation

productivity has remained ~ the same overall)

– Water accounting

– Nationally accredited Water Resource Plans

• Policy and water recovery: Department of Environment,

Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder

• Spatial data: Geoscience Australia

• Rainfall, runoff and water quality data: Bureau of Meteorology

• Research: Commonwealth Science and Industry Research

Organisation and various universities

Water

Act 2007

Basin

Plan

CH5

Environmental

Watering Plan

Water Resource

Plans

Monitoring

and

Evaluation

Water Quality

Plan

Water Trading

Rules

Critical Human

Water Needs

Enabling

LegislationObjectives of

Basin Plan

Key Actions Monitoring and

Evaluation

Activities Conducted

Funding mechanism

Two funding streams:

• Joint program funding (consensus through Ministerial Council) for

activities such as:

– Salinity interception

– The Living Murray initiative (management of significant

assets)

– River Murray operations (running the regulated river)

• Commonwealth funding: implementing the Basin plan (see

previous slide of activities): money allocated by Federal Minister

for Environment

Both mechanisms are legally in place for long term, but funding is

decided annually and varies depending on state and federal budgets

Achievement and challenges

Achievements:

•Basin Plan on track for being implemented by 2019 (key

actions completed – slide 7)

•Change from consensus model to centralized model

successfully completed (slide 3)

Challenges:

•Social license to consolidate Basin Plan objectives

•Defining ongoing RBO role after Basin Plan

implementation stage, and simplifying and securing the

funding mechanism

Lessons learnt

• RBO in Australia is all about integrating state

responsibilities for water management in Basin-wide

and national context

• Narrow focus on water management from wider, more

ambitious natural resource management over the

years – not fully integrated water management?

• But moved from lowest common agreed targets to

more ambitious targets through centralized model and

Basin Plan.