Announced water allocations

Every year on May 1, the Controller of Water Resources announces how much water a Northern Territory (NT) licence holder can use for the upcoming year.

These announcements are part of the NT’s approach towards sustainable water resource management in the top end.

They're also called the announced allocations or AAs.

It's one of the regulatory mechanisms used to ensure water use activities don't cause environmental harm to water ecosystems.

Get a print-friendly version of the announced allocation fact sheet DOCX (78.4 KB).

Assessment

The announcement specifies how much of the allowed water can be used, based on an assessment of the affected water resources.

Inside of a water allocation plan area, the plan and the announced allocation procedure determine the process to be followed for announced allocations.

Outside of a water allocation plan area, where the NT water allocation planning framework applies, wet season rainfall is used to predict the aquifer and receiving rivers response for the dry season ahead.

If the assessment reveals that the river flows are:

likely to be affected by more than 20%, then all existing licence holders may be subject to a proportional cut in their allocated volume
- this is in order to ensure that the environmental limit of 20% is met
unlikely to be impacted by more than 20%, then full entitlements will apply.

For more information, read all water allocation plans.