This two-year action plan is a 10-year journey. Transitioning to a leading waterwise city means changing the way we manage water in our urban landscape between now and 2030. This change can only be delivered by the joint efforts of State and local government, traditional owners, the community and urban development industry.

The action plan was drawn from the ideas and actions from over 200 stakeholders from all sectors provided through consultation during 2018. It is an across Government approach with commitments from the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation; Department of Communities; Department of Finance; Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries; Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage; DevelopmentWA; METRONET and Water Corporation. Ongoing consultation, design and testing of new actions will be carried out in collaboration with the already established and involved Water Sensitive Transition Network. This is a group of leaders from across State and local government, industry, research and community organisations, working together to support Perth’s transition to a waterwise city. We will also continue our relationships with the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities and other innovators.

We recognise that many people from community, industry and local government organisations are already leading the way in waterwise practice. These groups experience water challenges, and work within the current policy and planning framework every day. We will involve them in policy development to ensure that we achieve improved waterwise outcomes, but avoid creating unnecessary red tape or impacts on housing affordability. Therefore we will take a ‘co-design’ approach to policy and action development and invite parties to participate in the design, development and testing of new approaches. We will seek to increase our engagement and involve Noongar people, who are the original stewards of this landscape and its water.

Plan highlights:

• Assistance for households to be more waterwise and reduce annual per person use to 110kL;
• Improved water management of sporting ovals and green spaces;
• All government-led urban development projects in Perth and Peel to be 100 per cent waterwise;
• METRONET precincts designed to consider all elements of the water cycle;
• Increased use of recycled water; and
• Increasing the urban tree canopy to reduce the urban heat island effect.