Evaluating scenarios for the Howard catchment: summary report for workshop participants and stakeholders

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The Howard River catchment covers approximately 1, 500km2 in the rural Darwin region of the Northern Territory (NT). Over the past decade, increased demand from Darwin residents and residential and agricultural development in the rural Darwin region has increased competition for groundwater, thus generating tensions between different user groups, including those concerned about the health of groundwater dependent ecosystems.

The NT Government is turning to statutory water planning processes to regulate, share and sustain local water resources. In this, it is driven and guided by the national program of water reform introduced by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the National Water Initiative (NWI). These water planning processes include mechanisms to guarantee water allocations to the aquatic environment and the water accounting systems to underpin monitoring, trading, environmental and on-farm management. However, water planning in the NT is in its infancy and managers, planners and members of the community face a number of challenges.