The Department of Water protects and manages drinking water supplies in Western Australia using powers provided by the Metropolitan Water Supply Sewerage and Drainage Act, 1909 (MWSSD) and Country Areas Water Supply Act, 1947 (CAWS).
Our goal is to ensure that the public has access to safe, good quality drinking water now and in the future.
To achieve this we:
- work with the community, local government and water service providers to identify, assess and protect public drinking water source areas by preparing 'Drinking Water Source Protection Assessments' and 'Drinking Water Source Protection Plans' for new and existing water sources;
- have adopted the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines - 'catchment to consumer' multiple barrier, risk based framework;
- prepare and implement policies and strategies with other State Government agencies (eg Statement of Planning Policy Number 2.7 - Public Drinking Water Sources, June 2003); and
- develop water quality protection notes, codes and guidelines on best environmental practice.
Proclamation of public drinking water source areas
Our drinking water comes from surface and groundwater sources. They are proclaimed/gazetted under either the MWSSD Act or the CAWS Act as either a Water Reserve, Catchment Area or Underground Water Pollution Control Area.
These Acts provide powers necessary to legally define the boundary of the drinking water source. They also provide by-laws which allow the State to protect the water quality of these sources.
A list of proclaimed public drinking water sources in Western Australia is provided in the publication "Proclaimed Public Drinking Water Source Areas".
Management of other drinking water sources across the State, such as remote community supplies, mine sites and private supplies are guided by legislation, policy and practice applied to the State's primary public drinking water supplies under the MWSSD Act and CAWS Act.
Priority classification areas and protection zones
Once a drinking water source has been identified, it is important to ensure that it is protected from contamination. This is achieved by the development of Drinking Water Source Protection Assessments and th water source protection plans. These documents provide a mechanism to define 'priority areas' and 'protection zones' in each proclaimed public drinking water source area.Water Source Protection Branch.
Once the 'priority area(s)' or 'protection zone(s)' is/are defined in the proclaimed area, land use development and activities that are considered appropriate to meet water quality protection objectives are listed in the Department's Land Use Compatibility in Public Drinking Water Source Areas Water Quality Protection Note.
Legislative review
The current review of water legislation will look to develop a single Act under which the protection of our limited drinking water sources can be achieved. This will remove current inconsistencies related to having two Acts for the protection of drinking water quality.
To contact us for information on the department's drinking water protection program: E-mail the Water Source Protection Branch.
- Click here for our policies
- Click here for State Water Quality Management Strategy publications
- Click here for our water quality protection guidelines
- Click here for our drinking water source protection plans and assessments
- Click here for our water quality protection notes
- Click herefor our Protecting your drinking water sources brochures
- Click here to view our advisory brochures relevant to drinking water
- Click here to go to the Geographic Data Atlas for a map of Public Drinking Water Source Areas
- Click here to open a register of drinking water catchments within each local government area
- Click here to go to the Logue Brook Dam project web page
- Click here for our drinking water source area maps
- Click here for our Proclamation maps under the Country Areas Water Supply Act 1947
- Click here for our Proclamation maps under the Metropolitan Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Act 1909