Changes to water legislation

The Northern Territory (NT) Government is responsible for taking care of water resources in a sustainable way.

The primary tool to manage and protect water in the NT is the Water Act 1992 and the Water Regulations 1992.

Sometimes, the government makes changes to these rules to make them better and meet the community's expectations.

This page summarises these recent changes and current transitional arrangements.

In the future, the government plans to update the Water Act and create new laws for safe drinking water.

This is a step towards improving how water is managed sustainably in the NT, as described in the Territory Water Plan. Find out more on the Office of Water Security website.

Developing new water legislation

By 2026, the government will develop new legislation to replace the Water Act 1992 (NT). It will support sustainable development through contemporary water resource management.

Read more on the Office of Water Security website.

2024 changes to the Water Act

The 4 key changes are:

• separating powers between the minister and the water controller
• moving the review functions from the minister to the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which reviews decisions under multiple pieces of legislation
• strengthening enforcement powers to ensure people comply with the Act
• a streamlined licensing process to make it clearer.

Read more about this in the Water Act amendments 2024 information paper. PDF (568.0 KB)

2023 changes to the Water Act

The 3 key changes were:

• setting a 2-year timeframe to transition existing mining activities into the Act
• setting a 2-year timeframe to finish the transition of previously exempt water users in the Darwin rural water control district into the licensing system
• giving the minister the power to declare restricted water extraction areas where water resources are at risk.

Read more about this in the water regulatory reform paper 2023 PDF (581.2 KB).