Maintaining a healthy water environment

It was the savage millennium drought that led to the creation of the Victorian Environmental Water Holder, a unique organisation established to support the health of the state’s waterways.

Dr Sarina Loo, CEO of the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH), still remembers the stress on river systems and communities during the millennium drought, which gripped southern Australia from 1996 to 2010.

“Some species were facing extinction, like the Murray hardyhead fish, and there was very little water for the environment,” she said. “The small volumes for the environment were directed to saving threatened species, providing refuges and avoiding catastrophic events.”

Accountable, independent guardian

After the drought broke in 2010, the VEWH was established in 2011 as an ‘accountable, independent guardian’ to transparently manage environmental water entitlements without political interference.

“The VEWH is a unique institutional model,” Dr Loo said. “Although there is a Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, no other state or territory in Australia has an independent environmental water holder like Victoria.”

The VEWH is overseen by a four-person Commission that decides where, when and how water for the environment will be used. This includes water deliveries, carrying water over from one year to the next, and trading water to benefit rivers, wetlands and floodplains the most.

Partners who work with the VEWH on the watering program include waterway managers in nine catchment management authorities and Melbourne Water, the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, storage managers, land managers, Traditional Owners and scientists. Stakeholders include those organisations and people with an interest in the program.

Recovering water for the environment

“Many rivers and wetlands have been changed to provide water for towns, industry and growing food,” Dr Loo said. “In some rivers, up to half of the water that would have naturally flowed in them is removed each year for drinking water, irrigation and industry. That means rain or shine, they are constantly experiencing an artificial drought.”

In response to declining river and wetland health from water extraction and the construction of dams, weirs and channels, governments have invested significantly over the past two decades to recover water for the environment (also called environmental flows). In Victoria, this has occurred largely through water-saving projects, such as improving the efficiency of water delivery for towns and farms. Some of these water savings are then converted into environmental water entitlements. The Commonwealth Government has also invested in water recovery through the implementation of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Water for the environment is used to help maintain and protect the environmental health of rivers, wetlands, floodplains, and the native plants and animals that depend on them.

Environmental flows are planned to encourage native fish migration and breeding, improve water quality and the condition of floodplain trees, trigger plant growth, and provide feeding and nesting places for waterbirds. They also help maintain flows or permanent pools in rivers that could dry out. To achieve healthier waterways, environmental flows must be integrated with other catchment management actions, such as removing barriers to fish movement and feeding and managing plant growth on riverbanks.

Adapting to climate change

The VEWH and contributes to how Victoria’s environmental watering program deals with increasingly variable seasonal conditions caused by accelerating climate change.

“We’re trying to build resilience in plants and animals, and our work is important to enable them to adapt to climate variability and drier times,” Dr Loo said. “We work closely with people on the ground to listen, learn and adapt to challenges like a drying climate, warmer average temperatures and more intense and unseasonal rainfall, which have all occurred over the past few years. In the past, climate change seemed like a far-off pressure, but year on year, we’re having to manage a variable climate with extreme events becoming more prevalent.

“We’ve just had three back-to-back La Niña years and have seen the worst floods on record. There is huge climate variability, but with a long-term drying trend, so I’m sure we’ll enter another severe drought at some stage.”

The VEWH works with program partners to plan seasonal watering each year and target the most appropriate actions for the ‘boom and bust’ cycles of floods, drought and everything in between.

In planning environmental flows, ‘seasonal’ covers various climate conditions in a year, including normal differences between summer, autumn, winter and spring and whether a year is estimated to be drier or wetter than average.

Environmental flows are used during droughts and dry periods to maintain basic ecological functions, avoid irreversible damage, and provide refuge areas. In average years, the aim is to improve ecological resilience and health, particularly through providing breeding opportunities. After major floods, environmental flows are used to support native animal and plant species in recovering and breeding, create conditions for young waterbirds and juvenile fish to survive, and improve riverbank plant growth and water quality after prolonged high flows.

Benefitting everyone

Waterway managers plan with Traditional Owners, stakeholders and communities to share benefits when environmental flows are delivered, including cultural values, recreation, social activities, community wellbeing and economic benefits.

This annual planning considers how environmental flows can support activities such as boating, canoeing, fishing, birdwatching, camping, relaxing in nature and tourism.

These can include sustaining healthy Country and helping Traditional Owners meet cultural objectives, building native fish populations popular with anglers, supporting bird populations important to bird watchers, and improving waterway health and quality for community members, visitors, and tourists.

“We work closely with waterway managers to understand how river systems are reacting to climate, operations and environmental watering, and how they are valued,” Dr Loo said.

“Listening to and learning from Traditional Owners, scientists, and community members is essential as we plan seasonal watering each year and target watering actions to achieve the best possible outcome for the environment and communities.”