Funded by the Australian Research Council, the project will identify and critically examine water theft though a rigorous investigation of the key factors, scope, characteristics, motives and contexts of offending and compliance, resulting in a database of compliance and water theft offences in the MDB.
It will critically analyse the governance arrangements, the legislation, regulatory instruments, and policy related to freshwater management and distribution in the MDB; it will access the voices of stakeholders and communities impacted by water theft to understand the social, economic and environmental harms of water theft and, finally, it will develop a framework and policy recommendations of approaches for water theft prevention.
The project has a completion date of 30 June 2026.