Most people want strong action to address water theft in NSW

The best way to find out what your stakeholders think and care about is to ask them.

We recently opened the floor to water licence holders, stakeholder groups and members of the public to provide feedback on the way water is regulated in NSW.

The NRAR Community Benchmarking Survey 2023 found that 70% of the general public believed illegal water take was happening, and 84% wanted stronger action to combat the problem.

Whether respondents were water licence holders or members of the general public, the survey clearly shows that they want a strong regulator on the beat to ensure water laws are followed.

The survey also found that:????

• 83% of water licence holders believe it is never okay to break the rules.???
• 99%?of those who thought it was sometimes okay to break the rules cited emergency scenarios such as fire as the most common justification.?????
• Most stakeholder groups believe that because of NRAR, rule breakers are more likely to be caught.????

Survey results are only meaningful if analysed and used to inform and influence future actions.

NRAR was established in 2018 during the worst drought in Australia’s history to address systemic challenges in water regulation in NSW.

Since we started, we've taken 38 of the most serious matters to court, with 210 enforcement actions issued in the 2022-23 financial year alone.

We’ve also focused on educating licence holders about the water management rules.

Understanding of the water laws has increased, and water theft has become much less common. For every 100 properties our Outreach team visits, we see about 70 people doing the right thing, around 25 have minor non-compliance issues, and 5 people have serious issues that need to be addressed.?

The survey results showed it’s important we keep focusing on education and detection.?

• Only 60%?of licence holders who we visited said they felt they received appropriate education regarding their obligations, so we will continue to develop resources that can help them.?
• We will also work on boosting confidence that the system works by highlighting how we detect breaches using advanced satellite and remote imaging techniques.?

Taking time to develop a clear purpose for running a survey and how you’ll use the results, will deliver better outcomes (and save your stakeholders from survey fatigue!).

For NRAR, our public surveys aim to understand community views, concerns and expectations surrounding how water is regulated in NSW.

We use the survey feedback to inform our activities and help us deliver outcomes that benefit the community, the environment, and industry.

Visit our website to learn more and view our latest 2023 survey results.?

?? Have you run stakeholder surveys? Share your insights or tips below??