• water management
  
  • Water overview
  • Legislation and policies
  • Water data online
  • Water access and trade
  • Water sharing plans
  • Water for the environment
  • Water quality
  • Water Compliance
  • Across the State
• vegetation
  
  
  • Vegetation overview
  • Native vegetation in NSW
  • Plantations
  • Private Native Forestry
  • Vegetation Compliance
• soils
  
  
  • Soils overview
  • Soils in NSW
  • Soils data online
  • Soil survey
  • Maps for land managers
  • Soil Conservation Schemes
  • Acid sulfate soil
  • Salinity
• wetlands, coast and floodplains
  
  • Coast and floodplains overview
  • The coast
  • Estuaries
  • Floodplains
  • Wetlands

• What is a water sharing plan?
• Commenced water sharing plans »»
• Macro water sharing plans
• Draft water sharing plans
• Water advisory notes
• Socio–Economic Assessment
• The environmental rules for rivers and aquifers

• Site search:

DWE Home > Home > Water Management > Water sharing plans > Commenced water sharing plans

Department of Water and Energy

Commenced water sharing plans

Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlements program

The Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlements (ASGE) program aims to ensure the long term sustainability of the six major inland groundwater systems in NSW and a healthy and sustainable groundwater irrigation industry. The NSW and Australian governments invested $135 million in the program to support licence holders and regional communities. Advice on the ASGE program was provided to governments by the Groundwater Adjustment Advisory Committee which included representatives of the NSW Irrigators' Council, Chairs of the six CMAs, and senior NSW and Australian government officers.

What is the Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlements (ASGE) program all about?

The Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlement (ASGE) program is about securing a healthy and sustainable groundwater irrigation industry for NSW.

Prior to the commencement of the water sharing plans,the level of entitlement in some inland groundwater systems was significantly greater than what could actually be extracted each year. To protect our limited groundwater resources for future generations, this over-allocation needed to be resolved.

To assist this, the estimated annual recharge has been calculated for each of the major groundwater systems in NSW. Recharge is the total volume of water that enters the groundwater system each year.

The proportion of the recharge which can be extracted each year having considered the socio-economic, environmental factors and the long-term sustainability of the resource is the sustainable yield.

Entitlements were then reduced in line with the sustainable yield.  The inland groundwater systems that were affected are the Upper and Lower Namoi, Lower Murrumbidgee, Lower Gwydir, Lower Lachlan, Lower Macquarie and Lower Murray.

These systems were all over-allocated, and in the past most of these systems had also experienced over-extraction. If left unchecked, this would have resulted in significant adverse impacts to the resource and rural communities over the long term.

The Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlements program had four main components:

• the reduction of water entitlements based on historical extraction
• a financial assistance package for licence holders of up to $125 million
• a Community Development Fund of up to $9 million to help strengthen communities
• up to $1 million for the implementation of the ASGE program including the costs for completing valuations and consultation.

Payments under the Program should be complete by the end of 2008.

How does this relate to the Groundwater Sharing Plans?

The Water Sharing Plans specify the management rules that will apply to each groundwater source over ten years. The plans have been tailored for individual groundwater sources, and consider the needs of water users, local communities, and the environment.
The plans set out the details for how entitlements in the groundwater source will be reduced to the sustainable yield over the ten years of the Water Sharing Plan. The 6 water sharing plans commenced either in late 2007 or early 2008.

How will it affect licence holders?

There are two key ways in which the program will affect licence holders.

Firstly, the previous five-year renewable groundwater licence under the Water Act 1912 will be replaced by a new licence under the Water Management Act 2000. The megalitre volume on the current licence will be amended based on the ASGE program and the licence holder will be issued with a share in the groundwater resource. This new licence is fully tradeable and is a perpetual right to access groundwater into the future.

The key principles, agreed to by both the NSW and Australian governments, to reduce current entitlements were:

• to recognise water-dependent investment made by licence holders, and
• to recognise that all groundwater entitlements, whether extracted or not, have a 'value'.

The reductions in entitlements are based on the History of Extraction of each licence holders.

The reduction to current entitlement was made by weighting the active and inactive portions of each licence. The local Catchment Management Authority consulted with licence holders on different relative weightings.

Secondly, financial assistance was available for licence holders to adjust to the changes. The NSW and Australian governments made available up to $135 million for licence holders across the six major inland groundwater systems.

For more information on the background to the program go to the earlier (2005) publications:

• Financial assistance
• Sustainable Yield
• How the changes will affect licence holders