Australia’s independent Inspector–General of Water Compliance (IGWC), The Honourable Troy Grant has successfully hosted a three-day visit to a key area of the Murray-Darling Basin by Pakistan’s High-Commissioner to Australia, His Excellency Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri.

As part of the IGWC facilitated visit to areas of the Macquarie–Castlereagh catchment in Central West of NSW, His Excellency saw firsthand where the Macquarie River starts, and near where it ends – with several field trip stops in between.

Starting at Burrendong Dam, Pakistan’s High Commissioner learned about drought and flood mitigation strategies, before visiting an irrigators’ co-operative and a working irrigation farm in Trangie. His Excellency was then provided with a tour of Dubbo Regional Council’s water treatment facility which played a major role in keeping water available to the city’s residents during the peak of the drought crisis of 2019. Rounding off the field trip – seeing the role environmental water plays at the Macquarie Marshes. His Excellency and the Inspector-General walked the boardwalk among the internationally protected wetlands, listed under the Ramsar Convention over three stages, in 1986, 2000 and 2012.

“It was a great opportunity for His Excellency to see how Australia, in this part of the Murray-Darling Basin, is managing, protecting and regulating our nation’s most precious natural resource – water,” said Mr Grant. “Pakistan and Australia share very similar challenges with water scarcity, water regulation and efficiencies. Similarly, both nations share a vision to see world-leading water resource management in our countries.”

“His Excellency was able to hear from specialists in water operations (storage and river), hear from those who rely on water for their livelihoods in agriculture, food and fibre production, and hear from those who’ve committed their lives to preserving fragile and irreplaceable environmental ecosystems within the Murray-Darling Basin.”

Pakistan’s water challenges are often attributed to rapid population growth, climate change (floods and droughts), poor agricultural sector water management, and inefficiencies in infrastructure and water pollution. These are issues also influenced by geopolitical challenges, such as internal tensions between provinces regarding water access.

“Pakistan and Australia are among the topmost water-stressed nations on Earth,” said Mr Grant. “While our challenges are similar in some regards, we are very different in other aspects of water use and management.”

“Pakistan’s national government are quite successful in their nation-wide approach to provincial water resource management when compared to our own water history and management of cross-border water,” said Mr Grant. “While Australia’s state and territory cross-jurisdictional water resource management has improved and continues to improve – it is not without its challenges, even 123 years after federation.”