Updating the plan

The NSW Government’s Metropolitan Water Plan is an adaptive plan that will make sure Sydney, the Illawarra and Blue Mountains have enough water now and in the future.

The plan focuses on four key areas—dams, recycling, desalination and water efficiency—to secure our water for life, providing water for people and the environment.

Planning for the longer term

As part of an adaptive management approach, the Government is updating the Metropolitan Water Plan to factor in new information such as population growth projections and potential impacts from climate change. The updated Plan will be released in 2010.

The Independent Review Panel is overseeing the process for updating the Metropolitan Water Plan, including the community consultation (see process diagram). The update includes an analysis of environmental, social and economic factors to ensure the Plan includes the most appropriate and effective mix of measures to provide water for people and the environment for the long term.

A community consultation process is being conducted to involve the community in updating the long-term plan for Sydney's water future. The two-phase process ensures there is strong and representative community input.

Phase 1 is now complete. In this phase we ran a series of workshops for community, business and key stakeholders across greater Sydney and a publicly available online survey to identify the values that are of high priority to the community in planning for Sydney's water future. You can now download the final report and summary of findings.
Phase 2 will be run in late 2009 and will involve community members in discussion around the proposed mix of measures for the 2010 Plan.

We will continue to update the page as the 2010 Plan is developed. You can also sign up to the regular Water for Life eNews if you would like to be provided with regular updates

For further information on the Metropolitan Water Plan, you can download the 2008 Progress Report, or watch a short two-minute summary clip which outlines the main elements of the report.

The first phase of the community consultation is now complete

Water security is an issue that affects us all. The NSW Government is updating the Metropolitan Water Plan to plan for Sydney's longer term water needs.