Centre for Population forecasts indicate Australia's population will likely reach close to 29 million by 2031.48 With over 70% of the current population residing in cities, and much of the post-pandemic population growth predicted to do the same, the demand on existing water and wastewater infrastructure is expected to grow.49 50 Pressure on waterways that receive run-off or treated effluent will also grow.
The expansion of urban areas increases hard surfaces and reduces green cover. This in turn increases surfaces that absorb, store and radiate heat, contributing to the urban 'heat island effect'. Under this phenomenon, an urban area is warmer than the surrounding environment.51
Resistant surfaces such as concrete footpaths also increase run-off and diffuse pollutant loads to receiving waterways.
Greening and re-naturalising public spaces can support community resilience and liveability, mitigating the impacts of heat and pollution and reducing the impacts of flooding.
Integrated water cycle management approaches aligned with fit-for-purpose water consumption also have the potential to deliver significant benefits to regional communities. For some regions, the impacts of climate change are likely to be extreme, so the benefits that an integrated fit-for-purpose approach can deliver are significant. However, implementing such approaches in some regional communities is challenging due to costs and complexity.
Also, it may not be feasible to recover the costs of these approaches.
With some small local water service providers, it is important to recognise they may not be able to recoup the costs of maintaining a basic level of service. In these instances, Community Service Obligation (CSO) payments operate as an arrangement where government provides support for a utility to provide a range of urban water services to a set of users. This arrangement should continue in line with the renewed National Water Initiative.
For more information about CSOs and the need for transparency and effectiveness, see the Place-based outcomes for communities chapter.
As discussed under Reform 6.1, collaborative arrangements can support the delivery of water cycle management approaches in regions by improving coordination, resourcing and scale.