WSAA is pleased to release the the preliminary report into improving water services to remote First Nations communities. From the inaugural Voices for the Bush Conference in Alice Springs Adam Lovell, Executive Director said "most important of all, First Nations communities need a voice. A voice in the water services that remote communities receive".
The Report was commissioned in 2021 to review remote water services in Australia, to elevate these issues in the national conversation, and to recommend ways to close the gap in the delivery of safe drinking water including water quality and water security.
This Preliminary Report documents the arrangements for water servicing of remote communities across Australia. It outlines some preliminary findings and recommendations about how improving water can help close the gap – and where we can start.
Many stakeholders across Australia are leading many important initiatives in “Closing the Gap’ for First Nations peoples, addressing health, social, economic and other aspects. Yet amid this work, examples regularly emerge about remote communities with limited and sometimes no access to safe drinking water, poor health outcomes associated with lack of clean and reliable water supplies, and unclear accountabilities for providing water services.
The full report will be released in November 2022. WSAA continues to work with governments and the urban water industry, on how to progress these initiatives and embed them in a new National Water Initiative.
Read the Preliminary Report here.
10 Aug 2022
