Australian Water Association: Regional and Remote Communities Project Outcomes Report

This project set out to provide AWA with strategic options for regional and remote
programs. The challenge was to address the problem statement in the brief that ‘People who live in remote and regional areas don’t have equal access to clean and safe drinking water and wastewater management’. This inequity is expected to increase due to the impact of climate change, which will stress existing water sources and negatively impact liveability.

Improved access to clean water and sanitation in regional Australia and remote communities (in particular Indigenous communities) has long been an intractable challenge for governments, at all levels. The lack of access to reliable, resilient water supplies, has also presented a quandary to Australia’s water and environmental health sectors represented by the AWA. This is particually vexing when Australia is considered a high income country and many members are internationally recognised as experts in water governance, science, technology and practice.

Although regional and remote communities struggle, their situation of water scarcity, access to safe drinking water (especially “when living on Country”) and resultant health impacts are largely unknown in mainstream Australia. Australia (and New Zealand combined) reported, in the 2024 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report, that 100% of people and households have access to basic water services. Simarly, access to safe drinking water is missing in the reporting under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

However, the commitment in that agreement that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and governments need to work together to overcome the inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remains an important principle. There was a huge generosity of spirit that AWA members and other people from the water sector showed in discussion on addressing this challenge. The stories and proposed actions support AWA’s recognition that it can (and in the view of many, must) have significant impact.

This report proposes a pipeline of works, informed by four Program Areas:
 Strengthening Indigenous people’s water outcomes
 Water skills and career opportunities
 Knowledge exchange and community education
 Integrating health, housing and water

These four Program Areas offer a range of activities which build a pipeline of works through an analysis of impact and effort. The three focus areas of AWA’s roles and strengths below provide a structure to consider specific activities:
 Greater advocacy for regional and remote water needs
 Empowering place-based and community-centred approaches
 Partnering and collaboration for better sector outcomes

AWA is well positioned, and strongly supported by its members, to have a much needed transformative impact in regional and remote areas, which has eluded collective efforts of the sector for too long.