• Skip to content
  • Skip to navigation
  • About us
  • Make a payment
  • Accessibility
  • News
  • Publications
  • Contact Us
Government of Western Australia Department of Water and Environmental Regulation
Go to Minister for Water
Go to whole of WA Government search
Home Show Sub Nav
Planning for the future Show Sub Nav
Finding water

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Water allocation plans

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Rural water support

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Flood planning and mapping

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Water and land use planning

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Meeting demand

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Licensing Show Sub Nav
Water licensing Water Licensing

Licences and how to apply, licensing policies, forms to download and answers to questions frequently asked by current and prospective licensees.

Water trading Water Trading

Find out who is eligible to trade water entitlements and how applications are assessed. Click here to identify potential trading partners from the Water Register.

Metering and measurement

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Water licensing fees

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Legislation Show Sub Nav
Urban water Show Sub Nav
Water services

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Urban development Urban Development

Planning and managing water to enable growing, liveable water smart towns and cities.

Recycling and efficiency

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Bores Domestic Garden Watering

For information on groundwater, garden bores and waterwise gardens please visit our Be Groundwater Wise website. You can find questions and answers about garden bores,

Drinking water

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au .

Water topics Show Sub Nav
Groundwater

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Surface water

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Water quality

Managing the state's water resources requires a significant focus on water quality. We use the term 'water quality' to refer to the physical, chemical and

Waterways

Estuaries

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au

Onshore petroleum and water resources

This content has been updated and moved to WA.gov.au .

Maps & data Show Sub Nav
Maps

Monitoring and data

Main
  • Home
  • Water topics
  • Waterways
  • Managing our waterways
  • Groundwater
  • Surface water
  • Water quality
  • Waterways
    • What are waterways, rivers, estuaries and wetlands?
    • Values of our waterways
    • Threats to our waterways
    • Assessing waterway health
    • Managing our waterways
      • Legislation, policies and guidelines for waterways
      • Considering waterways in planning and development
      • Water Quality Improvement Plans (WQIPs)
      • Waterways management, action and recovery plans
      • Low dissolved oxygen and oxygenation
      • Restoring our rivers
      • River Restoration Manual
      • Urban waterways management and living streams
      • Soil amendments
      • Water notes
      • Waterway protection and management
  • Estuaries
  • Onshore petroleum and water resources
Share
  • facebook iconFacebook
  • twitter iconTwitter
  • email iconEmail

Managing our waterways

Why do we manage waterways?Oyster harbour

Waterways are valuable assets that contribute economic, social and environmental benefits to Western Australia, but the values of our waterways are dependent on their physical condition and ecological health. Historically, land clearing, land management practices, and modifications to our waterways have resulted in flooding, erosion, poor water quality, loss of aquatic and riparian vegetation, loss of aquatic fauna, and algal blooms and fish kills (see threats to our waterways).

Waterways management aims to protect and manage waterways and their adjoining foreshores, so that their physical condition, ecological health and values are maintained or improved now and for future generations. Managing and protecting waterways costs much less than restoring degraded waterways. Reversing degradation takes considerable sustained effort and investment, and even then significant improvements in condition may not be seen for many years.

Our role in waterways management

Waterways management is a shared responsibility. It requires cooperative relationships between landowners, land managers, catchment groups, state government agencies, and local governments.

The Department of Water leads waterways management in Western Australia by coordinating cross-government efforts to protect and manage water resources, including rivers and estuaries.

The Water Agencies (Powers) Act 1984 provides the Minister for Water and Department of Water with the power to perform the general functions of conserving, protecting, assessing and managing water resources, which includes waterways.

Protection and management of waterways, other water dependent ecosystems, and the services they provide is embedded in the everyday water management business of our department.

Key processes for protecting and managing waterways:

Legislation, policies and guidelines

The Department advises on legislation and prepares policies and guidelines about waterway protection and management. We assist other state agencies to consider waterways in their policies and guidelines, when this is appropriate.

Water allocation planning and water licensing

The water requirements of waterways and other water dependent ecosystems are considered when decisions are made about how much water is available for use through the water allocation planning process.

Waterways are also managed and protected via water licenses to take surface water and permits for works that may disturb the bed and banks of waterways.

Land use planning and development

The Department provides advice about protecting waterways and managing the potential effects of land use and development on them.

Improving water quality

We manage water quality through water quality improvement plans. These plans are developed to improve current water quality in estuaries (and the rivers and streams in their catchments) and to prevent further deterioration.

Catchment models are developed to support water quality improvement plans. They quantify the sources of nutrients flowing into rivers based on land use in the catchment, and are used to predict the impact of management practices on nutrient loads.

Restoring our waterways

The Department assists with planning, implementing and evaluating waterway management activities in priority waterways. We give specialist technical expertise about engineering works for restoration and offer information, tools and resources to assist with assessing, planning, monitoring and restoring waterways. For further information see restoring our rivers, river restoration manual and water notes.

We also provide assistance to natural resource management groups to develop plans for waterway management and restoration, including river action plans, river recovery plans and waterway management plans or programmes.

Remediation activities

The Department uses remediation activities to manage waterways. Oxygenation plants are used to manage low dissolved oxygen levels in estuaries. Soil amendment is used to treat high nutrient levels in subsoil drainage.

Managing urban waterways

The Department provides guidance on managing waterways in the urban environment including the development of living streams and other water sensitive urban design features.

Assessing waterway health

The Department uses information to underpin all of these management decisions. We assess water quality and waterway health to help us understand the current condition of waterways and the effectiveness of our management actions.

Further information:  For queries about waterways, contact your nearest Department of Water regional office or e-mail: waterways@water.wa.gov.au

Sampling the Collie River

Page last updated - 28 Jul 2022
Contact us

Department of Water and Environmental Regulation

Return to top of page
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation was established by the Government of Western Australia on 1 July 2017. It is a result of the amalgamation of the Department of Environment Regulation, Department of Water and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority. This website/publication may contain references to previous government departments and programs. Please contact the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to clarify any specific information.

WA.gov.au
FOR MORE NEWS ON WA WATER
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR RSS
All content copyright © Government of Western Australia. All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • -->