Department of Environment and Natural Resource (NT)

The NT Department of Land Resource Management provides natural resource management extension services and advice to landholders across the NT. Services include scientific assessment of vegetation, fauna, land and water assets and the allocation, management and monitoring of these resources to enable sustainable and appropriate use. The Northern Territory’s water resources are generally considered to be under relatively little pressure due to a comparatively small population base and low intensity of land use. However, this is changing and as the rest of Australia is experiencing immense pressure on its water resources, the largely intact water resources in the Northern Territory are increasingly becoming subject to higher demands. The Water Directorate has been established to facilitate development and implementation of water policy across water resources and water and sewerage services. The Water Resources Division has been set up to implement the primary piece of water resource legislation, the Northern Territory Water Act. The Act provides for the investigation, allocation, use, control, protection, management and administration of water resources, and for related purposes. The Water Resources Division is responsible for the development of Water Allocation Plans across the Northern Territory. Water Allocation plans are statutory instruments, declared under the Water Act to ensure that water extraction is undertaken in a sustainable and equitable manner with priority given to environmental and cultural flows to protect our unique environment. The other main function of the Division is to ensure that licensing, regulation and compliance are undertaken in a thorough and transparent manner.