A NEW era for the Geographe Catchment is how water minister Mia Davies described Friday’s announcement.
Ms Davies responded to the independent review on the management of the Vasse waterways by Professor Barry Hart saying the government would focus on five key areas in moving forward.
The five areas include governance, funding, drainage, infill sewerage and research.
“The key recommendation was to address the governance structure for the management of the catchment,” she said.
As a result a taskforce will be formed with stakeholders such as GeoCatch,
Department of Water, Busselton Water, Water Corporation and City of Busselton involved.
“The new taskforce will oversee a long-term strategy to improve water quality and the ecosystem,” she said.
Ms Davies will chair the taskforce for the first 12 months to ensure the right outcomes were implemented.
She hoped the taskforce would have its first meeting in November or December and there would be three more throughout 2015.
“I don’t want the taskforce to be too onerous but with me as chair it creates a sense of urgency to get things started,” she said.
Ms Davies said GeoCatch played a pivotal role in being the go-between the taskforce and the community.
As a result the state government has committed $200,000 towards the organisation.
The funding will go towards its work with dairy industry, revegetation, extending the Bay Ok program and improvements to urban drainage.
The Department of Water and Water Corporation will work with Busselton Water on an engineering and design project which will re-connect the Sabina and Vasse Rivers to the wetlands to increase river flow and return freshwater inflow.
The government have committed an extra $4.8 million for infill sewerage to help reduce local nutrient flows from septic tanks into the Toby Inlet.
There is already infill sewerage works underway at Abbey Beach where the government provided $14.5 million.
The last key area will focus on a review of the Vasse Water Quality Improvement Plan and develop a Geographe Catchment Management Plan to guide activities for long-term improvement.