AN ambitious bid to improve water security and quality in northern Australia will be put to the federal government, with proponents calling for a cooperative research centre to be established.
The Water in Northern Australia CRC bid aims to attract private investors across multiple agencies, with their funds to be matched by government for projects spanning up to 10 years.
WiNA Bid Facilitator Dr Paul Dalby, of In Fusion Consulting, said providing clean and secure water supplies was vital to the future growth of northern Australia.
"This bid is really stimulated by a small group of interested parties who could really see there was a problem with water in the north," Dr Dalby said.
"It is such a critically important resource required to enable so many things, for communities, agriculture, mining and a whole range of other industries.
"Northern Australia suffers in some areas from water shortages, some with detrimental water quality and the phenomenon of increasing water borne pathogens.
"It is stifling new development... and threatening existing investment."
Dr Dalby said one of the first things people mentioned when discussing developing northern Australia was the lack of a reliable, quality water supply.
He said the WiNA CRC would compliment the work being done by the successful CRC for Developing Northern Australia (CRCNA).
"They are doing a really fantastic job at supporting agribusiness in the north, from crops, to supply chains in cattle and agriculture, but they all need water. If we work together with them we can really focus on getting the water right and they can focus on everything else.
"It's a powerful combination that will support change in the north for the better."
Dr Dalby said the WiNA bid was focused on five core areas. These include indigenous led water solutions, with indigenous owned and operated water plants to serve their communities.
Water for industry is another key platform with discussions surrounding lowering the cost of water and improving the reliability of supply, which would require investment in new technologies.
Water related health outcomes also centres around technology, with systems needing to be created to reduce water borne diseases which are increasing in the tropics, while waste water solutions also need to be looked at.
"It's about giving northern Australia a bright future, the CRC is a brilliant program funding by the federal government for a cooperative to really transform a sector," Dr Dalby said.
"It will be funding up to 10 years, which means an investor in a CRC gets 10 years of resources, with their money matched, so it's doubled.
"We are putting this CRC together because the needs of the north are much different to the south.
"The technological solutions need to be much more robust, easier to maintain and meet the needs of communities and businesses in northern Australia."
Dr Dalby said most current technology, which may work in southern states, was sold out of areas such as Europe, Japan and the US.
This, however did not necessarily address the issues faced in the north, and innovative new solutions were needed.
Dr Dalby said the bid also included scope for water partnerships to create technology that could be shared internationally to meet the needs of South East Asia and the Pacific, which more closely aligned with the north than Europe or southern states.
Dr Dalby said they were looking to recruit partners including businesses, researchers, community leaders and government agencies.
"We are interested in recruiting more businesses that would like to participate in transforming the north, we need as many of those forward thinking, innovative, courageous organisations that want to make a different."
A series of online forums will be held in coming weeks and interested parties are encouraged to register at https://winacrc.com.au/events/.
The proposal will be submitted by the end of July.
