The team leading the NT Government’s efforts to improve remote water supply and drinking water quality has visited nearly 40 remote Territory communities in the past two years, or 38 of 72 communities, but the future of the Territory Water Plan remains in doubt when it expires this June.
The NT Government’s Remote Water Team has held forums about remote water quality and supply with 18 remote communities as part of the plan created under the former Labor government.
But its number one promise – to create new Safe Drinking Water laws for urban and remote communities by the end of 2024 – was abandoned when the current Country Liberal Party took power in late 2024.
The 0872 Report spoke exclusively with Nicole Joy, who leads the team from her Mparntwe-Alice Springs base, about what it has achieved and how listening to Elders on the ground about their water needs has been central to its success so far.
But that success comes as the NT Government fights a legal challenge from Native Title holders from Ali Curung backed by the Central Land Council in the High Court over its controversial decision to grant the NT’s biggest ever water extraction licence at Singleton Station for a huge new fruit and vegetable farm.
As funding ends for the plan in June this year, key questions remain about the future of water supply, the quality of drinking water in communities like Alpurrurulam and Nyirripi, and what the government intends to do about the issues remote communities have raised.
This report is part of a series of reports, podcasts and online articles from The 0872 Report on 8CCC 102.1FM, supported by an environmental reporting grant from the Local and Independent News Association.
Photograph by Ilse Pickerd: ‘As floods spread across remote central Australia and the Barkly, despite water being everywhere above ground, the NT’s key Territory Water Plan is in doubt.’