More data needs to be collected to address poor water quality in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

“We simply aren’t paying sufficient attention to water quality and safety in remote Indigenous communities,” Professor Stuart Khan – from the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney – told Government News.

Khan’s comments follow the release of a new report – Closing the water gap – from independent and not-for-profit collaborative the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering.

Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities “experience significant and ongoing challenges” related to safe drinking water supply, says the report.

The authors note that Australia’s national water quality statistics exclude service providers with less than 10,000 water connections, meaning that approximately 8% of the Australian population – or around two million people – fall outside of reporting obligations.

“If we aren’t collecting these statistics, we really don’t know the nature or scale of the problems which are being experienced on the ground,” Khan – a fellow of the academy – said. “We should be exploring opportunities to partner with community groups and representatives in the collection and management of water quality data. That will require long-term cooperative engagement and skills training, and we should be exploring the most effective opportunities to achieve these outcomes.”

Issues with poor water, sanitation, and hygiene in remote communities have been ongoing for decades, says the report.

 “We need to ensure that the suppliers and treatment operators have the skills and resources to deliver the job that is needed,” Khan told GN. “For many regional communities, skills and resources are severely lacking. In my opinion, skills and resources for water quality management need to be elevated as a national issue and properly supported.”

Some communities experience contamination from nearby agricultural and mining operations, says the report. This puts the water supply at risk of uranium, arsenic, fluoride, nitrate, manganese, iron, and microbial contamination that exceed the thresholds set by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.

Mineral, chemical and microbial contamination exceeding the thresholds for prolonged periods are causing chronic health impacts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, such as kidney inflammation.

Water security is also a concern. The supply of services to remote communities is mostly commercially unviable, says the report. “Many communities experience maintenance delays and a lack of customer service, compounding their water supply issues.”

Conditions caused by climate change are placing additional pressure on the already stretched reliability of water supplies, says the report, with projections indicating that regional and remote areas are likely to be severely impacted by longer, more frequent, and more extreme drought, “leading to less water, extreme fluctuation in water quality and greater uncertainty”.

Understanding the specific water needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is “a crucial first step” in addressing the issues, says the report.

“Improvements in water management for remote communities need to be tailored to individual communities since it’s unlikely there is a one-size-fits-all solution,” Khan said.

Remote communities lack the necessary clean water technology that’s needed to provide safe and reliable water services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

“Water technologies in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities need to be fit for purpose, place and people,” says the report.  “Issues around inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene practices could be better addressed with improved accountability from all levels of government, industry and water suppliers.”

“Accountability is certainly important, and in circumstances where accountability is found to be lacking, there may be a case for legal enforcement of responsibilities,” Khan told GN. “But a first important step is improving our understanding of the nature and scale of problems, and that means collecting more data.”