Making water management better with eWater

Most Australians are used to having instant access to clean water. However, much work needs to be done to make this possible. The eWater Group, in collaboration with Australian governments, is working to provide better water management outcomes at home and abroad.

Through a once-in-a-generation opportunity, the federal Government looks set to invest in ensuring that eWater’s capabilities, which underpin sound evidence-based decision-making governing Australia’s scarce water resources, keep pace with the nation’s needs in an era of increasing climate variability.

Governments nationwide play critical roles in managing water resources and ensuring all residents can reliably access clean water. The eWater Group is committed to providing these government agencies, water utilities and users with the best possible information to improve decision-making.

Owned by the federal and all state and territory governments, the eWater Group provides stewardship, management, development, enhancement, skills-building, research, access, and transparency in water management and modelling tools, capability and capacity. Serving the interests of its government members, stakeholders, clients and customers, eWater supports, facilitates, and encourages high-quality, reliable, evidence-based decision-making over water resources.

Challenges

Michael Wilson, Group Chief Executive Officer of the eWater Group, knows that modelling is a challenging combination of science, research and software development, but believes that eWater’s history allows it to fulfil this demanding niche.

“We were originally part of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) program, backed by the federal government,” says Wilson. “In 2005, we became the eWater CRC principally to take on stewardship of the decades of research that by 2009 had produced a world-class hydrological modelling system. This software-based platform, which was named eWater Source, provided a national approach for hydrological modelling needs that has been adopted by all Australian governments.”

It has proven so capable and adaptable that Source has been adopted by several governments and water management organisations overseas, including the Mekong River Commission.

“We did not have recurrent funding,” said Wilson. “We had to raise all our funding from governments wanting to utilise our software or companies that saw value in it. There was a lot of interest in our platforms, capabilities and advisory services.”

The other revenue raiser was the opportunity to build additional capabilities, tools, and service sets for a newer range of clients. These tend to be local government authorities, consulting companies, and water utilities and regulators.

“All of these eWater customers need to work closely with government agencies responsible for determining water allocations among different users,” Wilson said. “With the shedding of scientific experts from government departments, the private sector has taken on more responsibility in a consulting role.”

eWater Source

Underpinned by world-class science and technical innovation, eWater Source has been applied and validated by water managers in a range of real-world water use situations in Australia and internationally.

We are relied upon to provide creative, science-based, and trusted water management expertise and tools to meet Australian and international needs.

In May this year, the Australian Government announced that it would invest $4 million in 2024-25 towards maintaining and planning for the modernisation and enhancement of Source. This investment ensures eWater can continue to deliver creative, science-based, and trusted water management expertise and tools to meet Australian and international needs.

“The investment in upgrades to Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform, eWater Source, signifies a commitment by the Australian Government to deliver contemporary and responsive water management advice and support to meet the evolving changes, demands and challenges our environment is facing,” said Wilson. “We are uniquely equipped to provide a consistent, reproducible, and trusted hydrological modelling and governance platform tailored to evolving water management needs, including the impacts of climate change.”

International Development Cooperation

One important opportunity arising from Australia’s particular experience in managing scarce water resources across the federation’s different legal jurisdictions is that Australian water management expertise is highly valued overseas. But until 2015 there was no mechanism that could flexibly connect Australian capabilities with international development needs.

Through the Australian aid program administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia is an active development partner working with developing countries across Asia and the Pacific to reduce poverty and achieve their development aspirations. Not surprisingly, Australia has a long history working in water resource management in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Indonesia. In the Pacific, this history is more recent. In 2015, eWater was approached by DFAT to manage a flagship water development program called the Australian Water Partnership (AWP).

“AWP brings together a whole range of mostly Australian partners who are water management experts and practitioners across the whole gamut of water management disciplines,” Wilson said. “They are often working in consortium with each other in developing countries, aiming to solve whatever complex water challenges are being faced.”

In early May, the eWater Group signed a contract with DFAT for the third phase of AWP through to 2029, giving the initiative a total term of around 15 years. In its lifetime AWP will have dispersed over $150 million across its projects, leaving a strong Australian legacy of improved water management – and strong people-to-people links – across many countries in our region.

“Establishing this new capability in 2015 and getting it running in a short period was pretty stressful,” said Wilson. “It’s been a great success and something that we are very proud of. AWP was unlike anything eWater had done before, and certainly beyond what had been contemplated when we became a company nearly twelve years ago. But at the same time, it makes perfect sense: the two business divisions of eWater are striving for the same goals and draw on the same networks of Australian water expertise to be successful.”

Capability and objectives of eWater

eWater has enormous potential to support and further develop Australia’s world-class water modelling products and services. In doing this, it can deliver operational excellence and capacity building, playing the vital role of a trusted advisor to subnational, national and international governments and organisations.

“We need to demonstrate and exhibit our strong capabilities across a wide range of areas,” Wilson said. “We need to work with First Nations groups, international development programs, and subnational governments, as well as our customers. That way, we can drive growth into new opportunities that improve water industry skills and nurture future leaders.”

eWater is looking to grow from strength to strength, implementing an effective and targeted program to modernise and enhance eWater Source. The goal is to make it fit for many purposes and continue to eschew the idea of a one-size-fits-all approach. The incorporation of climate change and First Nations knowledge is critical to this.

Working with First Nations people

eWater’s work with Australian First Nations people is a newer area for eWater. The Government’s reconciliation agenda aims to provide increased involvement in decision-making around water resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“Indigenous Australians have a particular approach to custodianship and knowledge which is particularly valuable in both understanding how river systems, artesian systems, and groundwater systems behave over centuries and millenia, but which can also help all of us better manage river basins for their inherent environmental and cultural values” Wilson said. “At eWater, we want to modernise our software platforms, services, and solutions to be more inclusive of First Nations’ knowledge, interests, needs and expectations.”

State and territory governments, in conjunction with the Murray Darling Basin Authority and the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), are on a journey to better understand the needs of First Nations peoples. eWater is working alongside these partners, and with Indigenous water managers, to understand how hydrological models can appropriately represent First Nations needs and knowledge.

“Harnessing that knowledge from First Nations people will help us understand what happened to our watercourses and how they behaved before they were modified following European settlement,” said Wilson. “It’s important to be understanding this in a way that is highly respectful of how that knowledge is held, while also giving First Nations people what they want and need in terms of acknowledgement and respect.”

The future for eWater

Wilson is looking forward to the future with some big goals for eWater.

“In 10 years, I would like eWater to have a stronger national and international profile, and a reputation for delivering excellent products and services into both the domestic and international market,” he said. “I would like to have completed the modernisation of eWater Source, not only as the national hydrological modelling platform, but as the best hydrological modelling platform in the world.”

eWater is already well-recognised globally, but the need to constantly update and adapt is an ever-present one. The opportunity to make eWater Source more resilient and create new capabilities is now presenting itself. That will require further reinvestment in its flagship product, but Wilson believes that eWater Source will remain at the forefront of peoples’ minds.

“I’d also like to see eWater involved in useful work promoting the public good around water resource management, including encouraging young people to seek out interesting careers in the water sector” Wilson said. “This is not just an Australian responsibility, but a vital global need. That also builds on Australia’s ambition for a bigger, more ambitious and more influential international development agenda.”

For more information, visit https://ewater.org.au/