Overview

The Victorian Government is developing the Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy

The draft Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy proposes a series of policies and actions designed to enable landholders to choose how to manage their drainage and their drainage systems into the future.

The community is invited to have its say on the proposals in the draft Strategy and to contribute to setting the new contemporary arrangements for rural drainage, supported by clear roles and responsibilities.

A range of stakeholders contributed to the development of the draft Strategy. Four consistent themes that emerged from those consultations were the need for:

• Clear responsibilities for rural drainage, and clearly defined roles for individual landholders, the Victorian Government, councils, catchment management authorities, Melbourne Water and other rural water corporations.
• Clear legislative and policy arrangements that will enable rural drainage to be managed sustainably into the future.
• Support to develop pathways through environmental and cultural approval processes.
• Clear funding arrangements for rural drainage that reflect the distribution of costs and benefits.

This draft Strategy proposes a series of policies and actions to address these themes. The public release of this draft Strategy now provides an opportunity for the broader community to provide comments on the proposed approach and to contribute to the final Strategy.

Consultation on the Draft Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy is open until 20th December 2017.