Water Compliance Report 2020-21

This is Victoria’s seventh consecutive annual non-urban water compliance report. Water corporations report their compliance and enforcement activities each year so the public can clearly see how they are changing over time.

See summary of the Water Compliance Report 2020-21

Non-urban water compliance and enforcement in Victoria

Water corporations that manage water resources in non-urban areas play a key role in securing the rights of all water users as well as safeguarding the State’s water resources. In this report ‘water corporations’ refers to Goulburn-Murray Water, Lower Murray Water, Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water, Coliban Water, Melbourne Water and Southern Rural Water.

Most water users are responsible and abide by the conditions of their licences. However, each year, a small number of users break the law. Common offences of the Water Act 1989 (Victorian Water Act) in rural areas are:

• Unauthorised take of water (sections 33E, 63 and section 289)
• Unauthorised works (section 75)
• Wrongful take of water (section 289)
• Structure over works (section 148)
• Interference with a water corporation’s property (section 288)
• Obstructing water corporation officers (section 292)
• Failure to comply with water-use licence conditions (section 64AF)
• Failure to comply with notice of contravention (section 151)

Zero tolerance for unauthorised take

The Victorian Government is strengthening the state’s zero-tolerance approach to unauthorised take to ensure a level playing field for all water users.

In October 2019, the Water Act 1989 was amended to strengthen penalty provisions that make it easier to prosecute offences, increase the maximum fine for intentional water theft and related offences if they cause substantial harm to $990,000 for companies and $198,000 for individuals, and allow for the suspension or cancellation of licences for taking water and works.

In May 2020, the Minister for Water appointed Mr Des Pearson, Victoria’s former Auditor-General, to undertake a comprehensive independent review, ensuring Victorian irrigators and water users have a robust compliance and enforcement system, with checks and balances in place that helps maintain – and continue to build – confidence in the market.

The review found that most irrigators and water users were already doing the right thing, with low levels of non-compliance. There are several areas where compliance and enforcement approaches could be further strengthened to provide consistent and quicker resolutions.

In July 2020, the Victorian Government also introduced regulations that enable water corporations to issue water infringement notices on smaller volumes of unauthorised take as well as breaches of works and take and use licences.

In July 2021 Mr Des Pearson completed his assessment of progress made implementing the independent compliance and enforcement review. The assessment highlighted good progress has been achieved implementing the review recommendations and that unauthorised take has been substantially reduced during peak irrigation season.

Statistics for compliance activities and enforcement actions between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021

Water corporations report annually on their compliance and enforcement activities in accordance with clause 7.3A of their Statement of Obligations (PDF, 5.4 MB). (Accessible version (DOCX, 79.5 KB)) The following state-wide statistics have been compiled for the 2020-2021 reporting period.

In 2020-21, there was a greater level of compliance activity as water corporations continued to invest in installing new meters, telemetry on meters and database management systems that enable better monitoring of water take, greater scrutiny of potential breaches, and more comprehensive compliance reporting.

As at 30 June 2021, there were more than 68,000 meters installed across Victoria. Approximately 30,500 of these meters also have telemetry which allow water corporations to quickly detect breaches of the Water Act. Between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, water corporations with rural customers conducted a total of 60,104 manual meter reads. 15,123 additional inspections of meters were also performed to ensure that meters are maintained and functioning efficiently.

Water corporations with rural customers reported that they detected 1,193 potential breaches between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, 1,221 less than in the previous year. The decrease in the number of potential breaches detected can be attributed to better use of data and systems to improve efficiency and target compliance risks, and greater proactive communication with water users about compliance.

Water corporations also commenced 722 investigations and finalised 728 investigations (including potential breaches carried forward from the previous year). Unauthorised take continues to be the dominant category of potential breaches at 98.3%.

Approximately 93% of all potential breaches detected were in the northern region of Victoria, which is commensurate with the higher number of water users and licence holders in the region and the high level of activity in the water market every year.

Enforcement actions

Water corporations have a range of enforcement options to pursue. Advisory letters and verbal warnings are usually the first enforcement action taken in response to a breach, followed by a formal warning letter, notice of contravention, reduce, restrict or discontinue water supply, or prosecution. From 1 July 2020, water corporations are able to issue water infringement notices for less serious offences.

Water corporations may take more than one enforcement action if the water user does not rectify the breach after one enforcement action.

Between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, water corporations took 1,376 enforcement actions against breaches of the Water Act. This is 48% less than the 2,658 enforcement actions taken in the previous year and 33% less than the 2,043 enforcement actions taken between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019. The decrease in the number of enforcement actions taken is a reflection of Victoria’s strong commitment to zero-tolerance, water corporations’ improved customer notification systems and reduced levels of non-compliance.

In 2020-21, 89% of the enforcement actions reported by water corporations were verbal warnings, advisory letters or formal warning letters. Similar to the number of potential breaches detected, approximately 94% of all enforcement actions taken were in the northern region of Victoria where there are more water users and licence holders.

The following section provides a breakdown of enforcement actions and the offences that were cited against those actions.

Prosecutions

There were 26 prosecutions between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021 including 17 cases that were carried over from the previous year. In 2020-21, COVID-19 and lock downs in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria have transformed the way Victorian Courts operate. As a result, a large portion of cases heard were from the previous year.

The following provides more details about prosecutions that were finalised between 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021 and prosecutions that will be carried forward to the next year.

Priorities for 2021-22

DELWP, together with water corporations, is committed to a zero-tolerance approach to water theft so that there is a level playing field for all water users. We are committed to ensuring that Victoria has a strong and robust compliance and enforcement system, with checks and balances in place that helps maintain – and continue to build – confidence in the market. Our priorities for the year are to continue improving systems and processes following the Independent Compliance Review, namely to:

• Implement a consistent zero-tolerance approach to addressing unauthorised take, ensuring timely and resolute enforcement action
• Continue to proactively monitor non-compliance and identify and address emerging risks
• Build on our strengthened governance and reporting arrangements for unauthorised take
• Target communications to engage with the public about water compliance in Victoria, particularly in high-risk areas and the introduction of penalty infringement notices.
• Implement Victorian Non-Urban Water Metering Policy (2020) to enable compliance monitoring and reporting with effective water resource management.