Mandatory Rainwater Tank Collection

In reply to the Hon. M.C. PARNELL (18 June 2019).

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment): The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government has provided the following advice:

1. Since 2006, new houses (and some extensions) in South Australia have been required to have an additional water supply in the form of a 1,000-litre tank plumbed to at least one sanitary fixture to supplement mains water.

These requirements are applied through the National Construction Code (NCC) and were introduced as a sustainability measure during a period where prolonged drought posed a threat to the state's urban water supply.

The new Planning and Design Code (the code), phase 1 of which was adopted on 1 July 2019, has a significant role to play in this regard, given it will be the single source of planning policy for assessing development applications across the state.

No specific modelling has been done to date, however, in the developing of phases 2 (regional areas) and 3 (greater Adelaide) of the code, a range of measures to deal with both stormwater issues and environmental sustainability measures will be investigated, including water-sensitive urban design measures. Each alternative would be subject to a wide cost-benefit analysis, testing and consultation.

This process would also consider the potential costs that may fall to ratepayers if local government were required to upgrade infrastructure to accommodate increased stormwater flows and the management of local flood risks.

In summary, there is no intention to amend the NCC requirement for plumbed rainwater tanks until an evidence base for the ongoing management and reuse of water is gathered on the costs and benefits to ratepayers. The evidence base will be gathered as part of the development of phases 2 and 3 of the state-wide code, which will be a staged approach to consider and refine the existing policies within the South Australian Planning Policy Library.

2. For a number of reasons it's timely to reconsider both state and local policies relating to rainwater tank use. These include the need to encourage water reuse and manage stormwater flows.

Any such changes would be consistent with the state's move to the new natural resources management model—Green Adelaide—for the metropolitan area.