Sustainability Report 2006/07Drainage and flood protection
An independent steering committee has overseen workshops with councils and key flood management agencies, including Melbourne Water, the State Emergency Service and the Department of Sustainability and Environment, as part of the development of a new flood management strategy for the Port Phillip and Westernport region.
A discussion paper released in January 2007 identified flood management initiatives including the need to improve:
- Identification and understanding of flood risks and the impacts they have on people and property
- Understanding and planning for future pressures on the drainage system due to climate change and urban consolidation
- Programs to eliminate or reduce flood risks to tolerable levels
- Managing residential flood risks through improved community awareness, planning and preparedness.
A final strategy will be released in October 2007.
Facilitating sustainable development
In 2006/07, Melbourne Water received over 9000 statutory referrals for permits and certifications, all of which were processed within statutory timeframes. We also processed over 3000 works offers, feasibility requests and building permit applications compared with 2646 in 2005/06.
Flood level requests were also up for the year, with over 3900 flood level certificates issued compared with 3011 in 2005/06.
The number of third party works approvals for ‘build over’ applications, work applications from other authorities and stormwater connections increased significantly from 1229 in 2005/06 to over 1900 in 2006/07.