Case study of River Basin Authority in Australia

1. 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

2. Facts about the Murray–Darling Basin
14% of mainland Australia, I million
km2
Over 2 million people
Federal 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 MDB
Long term annual average

3. History of History of RBO establishmentmanagement
RBO
consensus
model
RBO
centralised
model
BP implementation

4. Governance of MDBA
Decisions
Advisory
Decisions
Implementation
Management
Monitoring Advisory
Decisions
Advisory

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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
Legislation
Objectives of
Basin Plan
Key Actions Monitoring and
Evaluation
Activities Conducted

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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.