The draft Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy proposes a series of policies and actions designed to enable landholders to choose how to manage their drainage and their drainage systems into the future. The Strategy aims to help landholders decide how they manage water logging on agricultural land to improve agricultural productivity in dryland areas while managing the environmental and cultural impacts of drainage.

The draft Strategy proposes to improve the management of rural drainage by:

• Supporting landholders to make choices about how they want to manage rural drainage;
• Clarifying the roles, responsibilities and obligations for land-holders and agencies in rural drainage;
• Rebuilding the capability for agencies and land-holders to manage rural drainage to support agricultural productivity in their region; 
• A refresh to streamline the environment and cultural approvals processes to help landholders find pathways to manage rural drainage that protect and improve environmental and cultural values; 
• Promote opportunities for landholders and Aboriginal Victorians including Traditional Owners to collaborate in the ways they manage rural drainage.

These arrangements for landholders will be supported by the Victorian Government, councils, catchment management authorities, Melbourne Water and rural water corporations.

We encourage you to have your say to help shape the final strategy. Consultation on the draft Strategy closes on 20 December 2017.

For more information about how you can get involved, to download a copy of the draft Strategy or to get in touch directly with the project team go to www.engage.vic.gov.au/ruraldrainage