Why is the Government conducting a review of local water utilities in rural and regional NSW?
A. Our water supply and sewerage service sector faces significant challenges to its ability to meet the future needs of the community and the environment. The NSW Government is seeking to examine the effectiveness of current institutional and regulatory arrangements to address the challenges and identify areas of improvement to ensure that water and sewerage systems are managed safely and sustainably. The key challenges are: • Climate change, drought and water sharing with the environment Currently, over 50 per cent of NSW remains drought declared in what is considered to be the longest drought on record. Climate change is expected to result in more frequent droughts and reduced, more variable rainfall. Recent research by the NSW Office of Water predicts that average annual water run-off into streams will be reduced by as much as 20 per cent in the southern parts of the State by 2030. Many local water utilities depend on water from unregulated streams for town water supplies. Reduced i
