Who we are

Our story

NRAR was created to change the water compliance landscape in NSW. We are here to ensure that water laws are enforced so that communities and the environment get their fair share of our state's precious water resources.

We serve the people of NSW. As a community owned resource, we need to ensure the NSW community has confidence their water is used lawfully and is shared according to agreed plans. We are an independent law enforcement agency, the compliance actions we take are at arm's length from government, so we can enforce the law firmly and fairly in the public interest.

To build this confidence, we have put boots on the ground all over NSW - initially to take stock of the situation and build our understanding of the compliance landscape, and more recently to assist water users on their pathway to compliance and penalise those who wilfully break the law.

We are pioneering new compliance techniques and technologies that make our operations more efficient and effective than ever before - delivering high quality, high value regulation for NSW.

We’re proud to say that as a result of our efforts to date, communities believe it's important for water laws to be enforced and we have found that the vast majority of water users want to do the right thing.

Our purpose

We build public trust and confidence as a regulator by:

• educating, enabling, and encouraging people to actively comply with natural resources laws
• enforcing the law to provide a deterrent, and to ensure fairness for the compliant
• championing improvements to the management of natural resources

Our promise to the NSW water community

We make it easier to follow the rules and will do something about it when they are broken. We promise to protect our water so that communities and the environment get a fair share.

Our values

As an organisation, we uphold six core values: daring, collaborative, creative, kind, inclusive and integrity.