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Demonstrates the way in which the Aboriginal community, Yarilena, situated in an arid and remote region of South Australia, met the challenge of water shortage
Aboriginal Australians and the National Water Initiative
In 1994 the Council for Australian Governments (COAG) released its Water Reform Framework, which provides the basis for the implementation of the National Water Initiative (NWI) Agreement signed in June 2005. The NWI Agreement includes the National Framework of Principles for Government Service Delivery to Indigenous Australians (hereafter 'the Framework'). The principles are as follows: sharing responsibility, harnessing the mainstream, streamlining service delivery, establishing transparency and accountability, developing a learning framework and focusing on priority areas (COAG, 2004, http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/250604/
index.htm#water_initiative, accessed 12 October 2006). In relation to the delivery of services to Indigenous people, COAG provides policy direction across all jurisdictions, recognizing Indigenous peoples' needs in relation to water access and management through Indigenous representation in planning processes and incorporation of Indigenous objectives into strategies (NWI Agreement Clause 53). The processes through which Indigenous rights and interests will be managed in implementing the NWI are yet to be resolved.
The responsibilities of the water service providers in remote Aboriginal communities
Responsibility for efficient water use in Aboriginal communities rests with the water service provider as well as the community. For example, part of Clause 64 of the NWI Agreement requires the '... efficient delivery of the required services', which makes service providers responsible for ensuring that water is delivered 'efficiently'. This might be interpreted as a duty of care to fix leaking pipes and identify and overcome inefficiencies within the water delivery service so as to minimize wastage. Service providers are bound by Clause 69 of the NWI Agreement, which requires any new works or refurbishments to be 'ecologically sustainable' before they can be implemented. In terms of remote Indigenous communities, this may imply that service providers are not permitted to extract water from bores at a greater rate than the natural recharge rate for the groundwater resources over a sustained period, nor install new bores where an aquifer is being dewatered.
Clause 66(v) of the NWI Agreement states that States will agree to 'full cost recovery for all rural surface and groundwater based systems'. However, 'some small community services will never be...