Our Purpose

We are a collective of individuals and community groups united by our shared and deep concern over the deterioration of our rivers, waterways and wetlands and poor water management in southern Victoria.  We come from many different catchments and yet we see the same tragedies unfolding: rivers depleted by over-extraction; wetlands on the brink of collapse due to insufficient flows; groundwater dependent ecosystems drying and dying; and contaminants leaching into our waterways. We come together now to raise a united voice for the rivers and waterways of southern Victoria.

The Concerned Waterways Alliance was formed by waterway advocacy groups across southern Victoria who felt excluded from the review process of the Central Region Sustainable Water Strategy (SWS). The high-level policy document attempts to secure long-term water resources for all users, including the environment, and is reviewed every 15 years. Many groups believed that existing environmental NGOs in Victoria were not giving the Central Region SWS review the attention it deserved.

By uniting as the Concerned Waterways Alliance, groups representing rivers from the Otways to Gippsland have gained access to senior DEECA managers, ensuring that their concerns and visions for the waterways were heard. This collaboration led to stronger actions being included in the final document, now called the Central and Gippsland Sustainable Water Strategy (CGRSWS).

The Alliance remains focused on ensuring the government delivers on the commitments made within the CGRSWS.