New South Wales Consolidated Regulations

WATER SHARING PLAN FOR THE BELLINGER RIVER AREA UNREGULATED AND ALLUVIAL WATER SOURCES 2008 - REG 11

11 Objectives

The objectives of this Plan are to:

(a) protect, preserve, maintain or enhance the important river flow dependent and high priority groundwater dependent ecosystems of these water sources,

(b) protect, preserve, maintain or enhance the Aboriginal, cultural and heritage values of these water sources,

(c) protect basic landholder rights,

(d) manage these water sources to ensure equitable sharing between users,

(e) provide opportunities for market based trading of access licences and water allocations within sustainability and system constraints,

(f) provide sufficient flexibility in water account management to encourage responsible use of available water,

(g) contribute to the maintenance of water quality,

(h) provide recognition of the connectivity between surface water and groundwater, and

(i) adaptively manage these water sources.

Note: For the purposes of the Inter-government Agreement on the National Water Initiative (2004) the environmental and other public benefit outcomes are:

1. the important river flow dependent environmental, Aboriginal, cultural and heritage values of these water sources are protected, preserved, maintained or enhanced,

2. these water sources are managed to ensure equitable sharing between users,

3. basic landholder rights of owners, or occupiers, of land are protected, and

4. the maintenance of water quality contributed to.