Water affecting activities
Water affecting activities are activities that impact watercourses, dams, lakes, floodplains, springs, wetlands, and waterholes. All activities in these areas have the potential to have significant negative impacts on water users and the environment, especially if poorly designed, located, constructed or maintained.
Activities include:
- Water diversion and storage - erection, construction, modification, enlargement, or removal of a dam, wall or other structure
- Building a structure in a watercourse, lake or floodplain
- Drainage or discharge of water into a watercourse or lake
- Depositing objects or solid material in a watercourse, lake or floodplain
- Obstructing a watercourse
- Excavation or removal of rock, sand or soil from a watercourse, lake or floodplain
- Destroying vegetation growing in a watercourse or lake, or growing on the floodplain of a watercourse.
Please contact our Water Resources team (8391 7500) to determine whether the proposed activities require a permit.
Permit applications
- Water affecting activity permit application form for culverts and fords
- Water affecting activity permit application form for all other works
- Water affecting activity permit application form for water storage and diversion
Our Hills and Fleurieu Water Affecting Activities Control Policy sets out the principles for managing these water affecting activities.
Information on dams within the Mount Lofty Ranges
Water is a precious shared resource so new dam development (construction or enlargement) must be carefully managed to ensure a balance is maintained between dam owners, existing water users, and water-dependent ecosystems. Due to the high number of existing dams and potential impacts to sensitive water-dependent ecosystems, authorisation for new or enlarged dams are generally not approved at this point in time. Please refer to our Dams in the Hills and Fleurieu region factsheet for further information or alternatively please contact our Water Resources Team.
Information about dam safety and maintenance can be found here.
Current recommended practices
A current recommended practice sets out what the Board considers to be the most appropriate approach, methodology and/or design for undertaking particular water affecting activity and negates the need for a permit. The Board requires to be notified prior to the commencement of an activity undertaken.
- Current Recommended Practice for desilting dams February 2023
- Current Recommended Practice for vegetation removal Feb 2022
- Current Recommend Practice for sediment control within a watercourse in a bushfire-affected area Feb 2022
FAQs
Water affecting activities - Frequently Asked Questions
Fact sheets
Image gallery
