eWater Group to deliver Phase 3 of the Australian Water Partnership
eWater Group has won the contract to deliver Phase 3 of the Australian Water Partnership
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has selected eWater Group as the Managing Contractor of Phase 3 of the Australian Water Partnership to deliver sustainable and climate resilient water resource management in the Indo-Pacific region over the next five years.
As part of an open tender process, eWater Group demonstrated its ability to deliver integrated water resource management with integrity, value and evidence-based advice and support.
eWater Group has successfully mobilised Australian water sector expertise through the Australian Water Partnership Phase 1 and 2 since 2015 which has seen AWP evolve to deliver development and partnership outcomes driven by local needs.
Michael Wilson, Group CEO, eWater Group, said “Our successful management of the Australian Water Partnership solidifies our continued commitment to support, facilitate and encourage high-quality, reliable, and evidence-based decision-making over water resources.”
“As a trusted advisor to public, private and research sector, water managers in Australia and internationally, eWater Group brings a wealth of experience implementing complex climate-resilient water resource management programs.”
eWater Group together with the Australian Water Partnership look forward to delivering a successful Phase 3 on behalf of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The Australian Water Partnership: Building Strong Partnerships and Engagement
Our partnerships with government, organisations, and stakeholders in Australia and internationally are crucial for eWater Group in the sustainable management of water resources.
In 2022-23, AWP, through DFAT, built strong partnerships and engagement:
🌐 AWP has supported Mekong River Commission Secretariat’s planning and analysis work on sustainable hydropower, alongside activities on drought and flood management. Australian experience on pumped storage hydropower has recently been shared with MRC colleagues.
🌐 The Indo-Pacific Water Stewardship program, which ran between 2019-2023, has had significant impacts, including an early detection to shift authority to locally-managed water stewardship organisations, with associated water stewardship leadership groups. A new activity in Vietnam has shown very strong engagement from the private sector, who see water stewardship principles as valuable as industry expands and matures.
🌐 Under the leadership of First Nations water managers from across the Indo-Pacific, AWP supported a First Nations focus at the recent World Water Week, hosted by the SIWI – Stockholm International Water Institute. Australian Indigenous water specialists have been supported to participate in range of international dialogues and conferences through AWP, ensuring water knowledge of the world’s oldest living culture is part of ongoing work on resilience to climate change.
🌐 AWP supported the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association annual conference, as well as the production of a climate resilience module for the The World Bank’s Utilities of the Future tool. Support for this key conference grew out of a close partnership between Australia and PWWA, established over many years through AWP.
🌐 Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) – AWP supported surface water hydrology for flood early warning systems which has been embedded with local authorities across four pacific Islands.
🌐 AWP support two activities with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) on regional river basin training and policy dialogue around shares waters. Results of the dialogue and research had wide reach across the Himalaya region and beyond.
We are putting a spotlight on the Australian Water Partnership’s 2022-23 achievements across the Pacific region
“The Australian Water Partnership continues to go from strength to strength in development programming, sharing knowledge and brokering partnership, and continues to advocate for sustainable and climate responsible water resource management to reduce poverty in our region,” Michael Wilson, Group CEO, eWater Group
We continue our spotlight on our divisions particularly the Australian Water Partnership as part of our latest annual report and their achievements in the Pacific community.
In 2022-23, the AWP team supported DFAT to achieve:
🌏 Papua New Guinea: Partnering with WaterAid Australia, AWP supported the development and integration of an inclusive Monitoring Information System which focuses on water scarcity, water security, climate resilient and GEDSI activities. The activity included a focus on community based WRM and WASH which was designed and rolled out in collaboration with the East Sepik Council of Women and East Sepik Disabled Person’s Agency to deliver community engagement sessions on inclusive water resource management.
🌏Partnerships for a Resilient and Climate-Smart Water Sector – Pacific and Southeast Asia – Pacific and Southeast Asia: Utility ‘twins’ were facilitated by the Australian Water Association, to build people-to-people partnerships across five countries and established relationships between AWA and other water associations in Indonesia, Solomon Islands and Vietnam.
We acknowledge and thank the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Water Partnership, WaterAid Australia, East Sepik Council of Women, East Sepik Disabled Person’s Agency, and the Australian Water Association.
Partnerships: Working with the South Australian Government
Michael Wilson, Group CEO, and Sarah Ransom, General Manager of the Australian Water Partnership, met with the South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Dr Susan Close MP.
South Australia has a formidable legacy in water investment and reform including, through its partnership with eWater Group, a determination to strengthen SA’s water security approach and fully implement sustainable and integrated water resource management practices.
We are very proud of our work in South Australia through our two divisions, eWater Solutions and the Australian Water Partnership.
Both of our divisions have had a long-standing and successful partnership with the South Australian Government in providing creative, science-based, and trusted water management expertise and tools to meet its water management needs and facilitate South Australian expertise to be deployed around the world in the service of better water management and poverty reduction.
Michael Wilson, Group CEO, and Sarah Ransom, General Manager of the Australian Water Partnership, met with the South Australian Deputy Premier and Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Dr Susan Close MP, to reiterate our continued support to the South Australian Government and its people who have invested in the capabilities we are entrusted to maintain and deliver.
“It was a great pleasure to meet again with the Deputy Premier this week and update her on eWater’s work with her Department and counterpart agencies across the country to strengthen and broaden the tools and services which strengthen quality, evidence-based decision-making over the management of Australia’s scarce and critical water resources,” said Michael Wilson, Group CEO of eWater.
“No Australian state government has done more than SA to help project Australian water management knowledge internationally, over many years. South Australia, at the end of the Murray-Darling system, has been pivotal in implementing the National Hydrological Modelling Platform, eWater Source, developed and managed by eWater Group.”
“Our meeting provided an opportunity to look at ways in which we can further develop and refine a modernised eWater Source, as well as improve our other water management tools like eWater MUSIC, in the interests of all users.”
“We also had the opportunity to discuss the SA Government’s continued strong involvement in the delivery of activities by the Australian Government’s flagship international water for development initiative, the Australian Water Partnership, and its strong and continued support for its activities in Australia and internationally.”
eWater has been involved in many successful endeavours with South Australia, delivering water management expertise, best practice, capabilities, and knowledge over the past twenty or more years.
We work to support, facilitate, and encourage high-quality, reliable, and evidence-based decision making over water resources. We do this by developing, managing, and deploying tools and services that enhance the sound and responsible management of water.
South Australia is a critical member of the eWater hydrological modelling community through its use of eWater Source and eWater MUSIC, our water sensitive urban design tool. MUSIC is used in eight Local Government areas and 29 South Australia-based firms provide MUSIC services to clients. The Department for Environment and Water and (DEW) and SA Water are active users of eWater Source.
Recently, through eWater Solutions, we worked with DEW to incorporate the Source Farm Dam plugin, making the functionality available to all eWater Source users. Farm dams influence the movement of surface water across the landscape and can slow or reduce flows to local waterways. It is important to be able to model these effects on water volume, quality, and availability in shared river systems where all users can be affected.
In areas with a high proportion of farm dams, such as rural residential areas like the Mount Lofty Ranges, these impacts can be significant. Incorporating the functionality into Source allows for a finer-scale assessment of the potential impacts of farm dams, giving water managers critical information to understand and respond to these impacts.
In addition to this project, eWater Solutions supported DEW to develop new tools to improve and simplify its model management systems and modelling outputs, in partnership DEW’s own modelling experts.
Our international development flagship, the Australian Water Partnership, managed by eWater on behalf of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has been working with the South Australian Government for some years now on various activities in developing countries overseas, as well as in the organisation of national and international policy forums and awareness-raising events.
The Australian Water Partnership worked with experts from the South Australian Government on an important groundwater activity in the Lao PDR with Flinders University. These experts, who are working on groundwater management in South Australia, were able to provide valuable peer-to-peer partnership to Lao colleagues, based on how they manage the challenges within their own communities.
South Australia has long been a supportive of national and international water events such as the 2023 Australian Water Partnership Partners Workshop, which was designed with DEW, and opened by members of the Kaurna people, SA Governor Her Excellency Frances Adamson AC and SA Deputy Premier and Minister for Water, the Hon Dr Susan Close MP. The Partners Workshop offered Australian water experts a range of engaging and informative sessions to drive conversations and practical steps towards strengthening community and environmental resilience at home and overseas through taking cost-effective and evidence-based water and climate action.
We were also privileged to have the support of the SA Water Ambassador, the Hon Karlene Maywald, who has participated in several AWP activities over recent years including as a member of Australian delegations to UN Climate Change Convention COP27 and COP28, as well as the 2022 World Water Week in Stockholm.
We are profoundly proud of what we have achieved in our partnership with the South Australian Government, and we look forward to strengthening and evolving together with other Australian government and private sector partners in the pursuit of better water resource management in Australia and internationally, for the benefit of all.
Meet Dr. Emily Barbour, Australian Water Partnership
Meet Dr. Emily Barbour, Mekong Program Lead, Australian Water Partnership
The drive to find answers and new ways of working to solve complex environmental challenges has always been a key driver in Dr Emily Barbour’s career. Her curiosity and her openness to sharing her knowledge and expertise with all – her colleagues and our partners – has always been apparent, from the very beginning.
As the Australian Water Partnership’s Mekong Program Lead, Dr. Emily Barbour has been leading the way in delivering climate-resilient water policies, practices, and tools in the Mekong region since joining AWP and eWater in 2022.
Dr Barbour brings more than 15 years of prior experience working in the water sector within Australia and internationally. Her previous work as CSIRO Senior Research Scientist included co-leading the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office’s Basin-scale Monitoring and Evaluation program, which evaluates the ecological outcomes delivered by Australia’s investment in environmental water within the Murray-Darling Basin.
With a Doctor of Philosophy in Hydrology and Water Resources from the ANU, and Undergraduate degrees in Environmental Engineering and Science from the University of Newcastle, Emily has worked on water resource modelling projects in South Asia and the Pacific, chaired the CSIRO Land and Water Science Council, and taught at the University of Oxford’s within its Master of Science degree program in Water Science, Policy, and Management. She also undertook an undergraduate exchange program in Norway.
Well before she thought of joining the Australian Water Partnership, a division of the eWater Group, Emily had a strong connection to eWater as she deployed her professional expertise in water policy and scientific research with CSIRO. In her time there, Emily held a number of roles including a River System Modeller and worked on Australia’s sophisticated software-based National Hydrological Modelling Platform, eWater Source.
As Mekong Program Lead at AWP, her focus is on designing and delivering development cooperation activities on behalf of the Australian Government (through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), and in partnership with international governments and institutions in the Mekong region. As part this key role, Emily is leading the way in knowledge exchange with governments which highly value Australia’s water management expertise – and our willingness to both share our experience and learn from others.
Emily has worked with our experienced AWP partners to deliver on the priorities of important partner governments in Vietnam, Thailand, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, through innovative programming, dialogue, training, deployment of tools and processes to support quality decision-making, and policy dialogue.
“I am always interested in pursuing and understanding the different perspectives of our partners and stakeholders from Australia and internationally; I believe that knowledge-building and capability development can only be successful if shared both ways.
“Through our partnership with DFAT, we have opportunities to observe and learn how our programs have impact, explore new ways to improve implementation, and identify how to respond to what we have learned in a meaningful way, which also enhances our effectiveness in the future.”
“I am interested in the interface between AWP and international governments, how they operate, how decisions are made, and what is useful [in terms of data and tools]. What we do feels like meaningful work to me and my team.”
“I am interested in how we can use data and technical tools to support higher quality, more evidence-based decision-making in water policy and management, and how this can improve the lives and opportunities of communities that rely on secure supplies of good quality water.”
Emily’s passion for water and the sector cannot be contested. Her commitment to finding solutions to working with water scarcity and promoting sustainability in water management in Australia, in the Mekong region and beyond is so clear when you hear her talk about her work.
For Emily, some of the biggest challenges facing the water sector is the need for a greater focus on working collaboratively to find practical and pragmatic solutions that can be realistically implemented, and which will be reliably maintained after the initial activity concludes. Infrastructure is only part of the solution to coping with the impacts of climate change. Often policy settings, community awareness and political will are far more important to achieving lasting success.
“Having a long-term plan is of course necessary, but also we need to consider the importance of meeting people wherever they are on their journey right now and hear their advice on how we might most usefully collaborate.”
“I believe that data and technology can be powerful when engaging with governments and institutions that demand results, but relationship-building with our partners and communities is even more important, because information-enabled solutions must be trusted and continually fine-tuned. There is such power in connection between people who are committed to learning together and trusting each other.”
Meet Pardha Mallipudi, eWater Solutions
Pardha Mallipudi, Business Analyst and Scrum Master, eWater Solutions
Developing innovative and robust solutions for water management takes specialist skills and sound experience, but also a belief in the cause.
At eWater Group, our people play a critical role in our mission to deliver sustainable management of water resources through the development and sharing of best practices, capabilities, and knowledge of Australian water expertise, nationally and globally.
Our organisation is like no other. And our people are central to that.
Pardha Mallipudi is our Business Analyst and Scrum Master within our eWater Solutions division, our software and hydrological division of eWater Group.
Within eWater Solutions, we have hydrologists, software developers, sales experts, and innovators, which are custodians of Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform, eWater Source™, as well as this country’s leading tool for water sensitive urban design, eWater MUSIC™.
With nine years of experience across finance, design and manufacture, and technology industries, Pardha’s love for problem-solving and data-driven decision-making drew him to becoming a business analyst.
“The pivotal moment for me was while working as technical analyst, a client facing role in SAP domain, I realised the transformative power of communication, project management, business, and data analysis and how it could drive efficiency and improve customer experience and streamline an organisation. That experience ignited my passion for business analysis and led me to pursue it as my chosen career path.”
This passion led Pardha to joining eWater Group and our eWater Solutions division in 2023. Our commitment to developing innovative solutions for water management and sustainability and environmental responsibility was the catalyst for joining our team.
“I was drawn to eWater’s mission to make a positive impact on water resources and an opportunity to align my expertise with a meaningful cause.”
As our Business Analyst and Scrum Master, Pardha plays a crucial role in stakeholder management, data analysis, process improvement, and strategy development to support the organisation’s mission.
“At eWater, there isn’t a typical day, as the nature of our work varies depending on ongoing projects and initiatives. One example of my role was when I worked with the team to overhaul the existing development tools. This helped as a team collaboration exercise and getting to know each individual’s interests and areas of expertise, which we then took to our external stakeholders. Seeing this translate to our owners and partners was fantastic.”
It is Pardha’s optimistic attitude and self-starter approach to work which has been a positive life force within our organisation and instrumental in our transformation journey that eWater Group is undergoing.
“The organisation’s reach in the field of sustainable water resource management is substantial, with a strong commitment to innovation and collaboration. I believe eWater Group has the potential to make a significant and lasting impact on the global water management landscape.”
It is the policies and program that govern Australian and the international water management decisions that remains a real challenge for eWater Group, water industry as well as governments, worldwide.
The key to our success is the need to learn to adapt and evolve environmental conditions, improve data collection and analysis, ensure effective communications with stakeholders but also enhance the performance of our applications and align them to current trends.
“To overcome these challenges, we can invest in advanced analytics tools, establish strong partnerships with stakeholders, and focus on continuous improvement in our processes and technology, and just as important, encourage staff to upskill to meet the changing needs of our environment and stakeholders.”
And it’s this attitude and approach that makes Pardha Mallipudi, eWater Business Analyst and Scrum Master, a crucial member of our organisation.
Who are we?
Jointly owned by all Australian governments, eWater Group provides stewardship, management, development, enhancement, skills-building, research, access, and transparency in water management and modelling tools, capability, and capacity.
We do this in the interests of our government members, stakeholders, clients, and customers and on behalf of the Australian people who have invested in us.
At eWater Group, and through our divisions, eWater Solutions and the Australian Water Partnership, support governments, organisations, and water managers to use our tools and products, expertise, and international development program management capabilities, including in their pursuit of integrated water resource management objectives and poverty reduction.
Meet Dr. Melina Vidoni, eWater Solutions
Dr. Melina Vidoni, Software Development Lead, eWater Solutions
“I am a big believer in fostering collaboration and empowering and pushing my team to be more responsive and agile to changes in the market and customer needs with a great emphasis on collaboration across our developers, research software engineers and hydrologists.”
We are excited about the future of eWater Group. We are continuing our commitment to the pursuit of sustainable management of water resources through the sharing of best practices, capabilities, and knowledge of Australian water expertise nationally and internationally.
And through this, we have made significant investments in the skills and expertise within our software development and hydrological division, eWater Solutions, which is responsible for Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform, eWater Source, as well as our other software tools, such as eWater MUSIC.
Our organisation is a high-calibre team of software developers, hydrologists, academics, sales and project managers, public policy and water industry experts will enable us to continue to meet the needs of our Australian and international owners, partners, and stakeholders.
As our Software Development Lead for the software and hydrological division of eWater Group, Dr Melina Vidoni brings an extraordinary breadth of technical and academic experience to our organisation, including extensive experience in technical debt identification and repayment strategies.
For those not in the know, originally coined by Ward Cunningham in 1992, an American computer programmer, technical debt was considered to be the result of software developers choosing a low-quality solution due to time constraints, wanting a faster or earlier release. This definition evolved over time, and by 2010 it was acknowledged that over 16 types of Technical Debt existed (Alves et al., 2014) including process, people, requirements, and architecture debt, among others.
Nowadays, and taking a step further towards understanding technical debt in organisations’, Gartner’s definition posits that technology debt is the outstanding amount of money an organisation must spend on digital technology cost obligations to continue doing business, and the incremental burden of shortcuts caused due budget or managerial decisions.
This definition later evolved to include the decisions of all those who are somehow involved in software and, as researchers on the Software Engineering Institute demonstrated, can be highly affected by external, contextual factors.
Melina graduated from the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (UTN) in Santa Fe, Argentina as an Information Systems Engineer before receiving her PhD, summa cum laude, at the same institution. After completing her PhD, Melina moved to Australia to pursue an academic career and gain international experience, including Lecturer at the Australian National University in the CEC School of Computing, where she specialised in technical debt identification and repayment strategies.
Melina’s career at the Australian National University enabled her to foster her international collaborations with researchers from around the world, including Canada and Australia. It is this interest in technical debt and the development of scientific software that led her to eWater Group.
During one of her searches for internship positions for her research students, and possible partners interested in research translation, Melina found eWater Group.
“I have always been very keen on applicable, hands-on research outputs that could benefit the industry – and that led me to start collaborating with a number of companies seeking to host scientific software, or to perform an agile transformation, acquiring over 12 years of research translation and coaching experience.”
“I was taken by the reach of eWater Source – Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform. It is, by far, one-of-its-kind in terms of size, influence, and its immeasurable impact to foster and support data-driven, science-derived decision-making across Australia’s Government.”
“Being able to work with eWater, the custodians of a unique and powerful research-derived software, presents both an intellectual challenge (given my areas of research), but also a way to make a clear impact in the world – the sustainable and responsible management of water resources will benefit the entirety of Australia.
“eWater Solutions has a critical role to play in the current landscape of climate change and resilience, and the intrinsic need for humankind to protect its natural resources.”
Since starting at eWater Group in June last year, Melina has had a positive and significant impact on the eWater Solutions team through her commitment to creating a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration, with the stakeholder at its centre.
“I am a big believer in fostering collaboration and empowering and pushing my team to be more responsive and agile to changes in the market and customer needs with a great emphasis on collaboration across our developers, research software engineers and hydrologists.”
“In our work with our owners, partners and stakeholders, it is critical we continue to adapt our software products to modern times, while continuing to provide operational excellence, as well as fostering and nourishing the reliability of our products.”
Melina’s leadership within the eWater Solutions team, and wider eWater Group, is part of our continued commitment to innovate and strengthen our impact in Australia and internationally. This includes the role artificial intelligence plays in research software and water modelling, and of course the science and technology industry.
“In various areas of science, artificial intelligence is being used to analyse massive amounts of data, automate routine tasks, and make new discoveries that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.”
“AI is being increasingly integrated into scientific discovery, and so far, AI approaches have proven useful to accurately model complex, non-linear hydrological processes, to cross imaging data sources with data from sensing tools, always leveraging the power of the Internet of Things (IoTs) (Chang et al., 2023).”
“Deep learning has been successfully used to project the production and consumption of resources and deal with the increased demand (Raya-Tapia et al., 2023), to identify crop water stress (Chandel et al., 2021), and across multiple areas of the hydrological modelling, including urban water security, prediction of physical processes, and smart-city water management (Allen-Dumas et al., 2021).”
“eWater and AWP are at the forefront of hydrological modelling in Australia. I could not think of any organisation better positioned than us to spearhead the translation of fresh, novel research into usable systems that will empower decision-makers to rely on trustable, sound science.”
Jointly owned by all Australian governments, eWater Group provides stewardship, management, development, enhancement, skills-building, research, access, and transparency in water management and modelling tools, capability, and capacity.
We do this in the interests of our government members, stakeholders, clients, and customers and on behalf of the Australian people who have invested in us.
eWater Group, and through our divisions, eWater Solutions and the Australian Water Partnership, support governments, organisations, and water managers to use our tools and products, expertise, and international development program management capabilities, including in their pursuit of integrated water resource management objectives and poverty reduction.
Australia and the Asian Institute of Technology collaborate with Lao PDR on water modelling
Australia and the Asian Institute of Technology collaborate with Lao PDR on water modelling
This week, officials from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic are working with modelling experts from Australia and the Asian Institute of Technology to exchange knowledge on how water modelling can be used to build climate resilience.
Both Australia and Lao PDR share the challenge of high variability in available water, despite the seasonality of water availability being very different in the two countries. Modelling provides one mechanism for understanding existing water availability and use, and how this may change into the future.
Experts from Western Sydney University, the Asian Institute of Technology, National University of Laos, and eWater Solutions are providing training in water modelling, data analysis, and equitable water management. Led by Western Sydney University’s Dharma Hagare, the training draws on the experience and understanding of water management in Lao PDR through co-delivering with knowledge brokers from the Department of Water Resources and Lao National Mekong Committee Secretariat.
Funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australian Water Partnership, the training comes at an important time with Lao PDR’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment currently delivering on its mandate to develop river basin plans across the country.
One of the models included in the training is the Australian eWater Source model at the direct request from the Government of Lao PDR. eWater Source is Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform, which supports utilisation of available data and best practice science to support water management and planning.
Mukta Sapkota, Hydrologist, eWater Solutions, helped run a customised training program focusing on the applications of eWater Source in Laos.
“These training sessions in water modelling are crucial to assisting Lao PDR’s water departments. They are an essential tool for planners and decision-makers for planning and developing resilient and sustainable infrastructure, taking into consideration future flood risks associated with changing climate as well as projected development of irrigation and hydropower, expansion of urban areas, population, and land use changes,” Ms. Sapkota said.
“By using water modelling tools, like eWater Source, local water managers can develop a more informed understanding of current and future river basin flows and water availability to guide infrastructure development and the supply of water for agriculture and energy generation.”
The training is an important component of the broader collaboration between the Government of Lao PDR and Australia, and we were delighted to have participants from within Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, including the Department of Water Resources, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Lao National Mekong Committee Secretariat, and the National University of Laos.
Laura Beckwith, Mekong Coordinator, Australian Water Partnership, said “AWP seeks to build partnerships between Australian technical experts and partners in the Asia Pacific to facilitate this type of knowledge exchange.”
“This shared learning about successes and challenges related to water management in Australia and the Mekong, strengthens… [our collective] ability to deliver on the sustainable and resilient management of water resources, in the context of climate change.”
International Day of Women and Girls in Science
International Day of Women and Girls in Science is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary people and their successes in science and technology.
Today is also recognition of the need for everyone across all sectors to join together to break down barriers to support the continued success of this current, and the next generation, of girls and women in science and technology for the benefit of all.
eWater Group is a diverse workforce. Our people have years, decades of experience from a various range of industries, including science and technology, academia, public policy, and more – with a central focus of finding sustainable water management solutions in Australia and internationally.
We are incredibly proud of our people and have profiled their extraordinary experience over the last several months, follow this link to read the profiles:
Our people represent a diversity of skills and experience across all sectors of government and private sectors.
Through eWater Solutions, we deliver a range of science and technology programs such as Australia’s National Hydrological Platform, eWater Source™, as well as eWater MUSIC™ which is Australia’s leading urban water sensitive platform, used by councils, governments, and water experts in Australia and globally.
Though the Australian Water Partnership, we work with more than 240 Australian partners to support sustainable and climate-resilient water resource management through skills and knowledge in response to demands from stakeholders across South Asia, the Mekong region, and the Pacific.
We recognise the importance of International Day of Women and Girls in Science and continue our efforts to support and celebrate the achievement of girls and women and need to continue the fight to break down barriers.
A thank you to our people
As we near the end of the year, we celebrate our achievements as an organisation and the challenges we have overcome to deliver water policies and programs with integrity and value for the communities we support throughout Australia and in developing countries around the world.
Michael Wilson, Group CEO, eWater Group “I take this opportunity to thank the hard work and perseverance of eWater Group employees and am optimistic that our organisation has a bright and dynamic future ahead of us driven by a creative, expert, and professional team.”
We look forward to 2024 and continue our work in the pursuit of sustainable management of water resources through the development and sharing of best practices, capabilities, and knowledge of Australian water expertise, nationally and globally.
National Science Week 2023
Celebrating Australian science and technology and the power of people
The sustainable management of water is critical for all life on earth and the wellbeing of our society. As the driest inhabited continent on earth, Australia is well-placed to understand the complexity of protecting and managing our water resources and has become an internationally recognised leader in water policy and management.
We are marking National Science Week 2023 by acknowledging and celebrating the people and science behind the work we do at eWater Group.
We are committed to the pursuit of sustainable management of water resources through the development and sharing of best practices, capabilities, and knowledge of Australian water expertise, nationally and internationally.
Our people are hydrologists, academics, software developers, sales and project managers public policy and water industry experts and innovators who are all here to find water management solutions for the benefit of all people and their communities.
We develop and deliver Australia’s National Hydrological Modelling Platform on behalf of all Australian governments through eWater Solutions; and deliver international development programs on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including through the Australian Water Partnership and Mekong Water Solutions.
We provide creative, science-based, and trusted water management expertise, products and services for people, communities, livelihoods, and environment impacted by many factors, including climate change.
From our beginnings as a Cooperative Research Centre Program to the organisation we are today; eWater Group has evolved to occupy a unique place in Australia’s water management and international cooperation ecosystem, including custodianship of the eWater Source platform.
eWater Source supports integrated planning, operations, and governance from urban to catchment to river basin scales including taking human and ecological influences into account. It accommodates diverse climatic, geographic, water policy and governance settings for both Australian and international climatic conditions.
eWater Source is the largest scientific software in use by the Australian Government, blending science insights with technological innovation to maintain the National Hydrological Modelling Platform.
Our world-class platform translates water-science outcomes into software to enable all Australian governments and our partners to harness data-derived insights and use scientific outputs in their decision making.
eWater Source has been applied extensively in a wide range of real-world water use situations, both in Australia and internationally, supporting the management of rivers in Australia, the Mekong region, across South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Alongside eWater Source, we also have eWater MUSIC and Urban Developer models which are designed to manage the interaction between various water supply systems as well as capture all water cycle components including rainfall and stormwater runoff, potable water, and the recycling / reuse of wastewater. These tools enable robust and reliable decision-making for secure urban water supplies.
To achieve positive outcomes across all sectors – food security, energy security, climate resilience, biodiversity and ecosystem health, and disaster management – water security is paramount. And as climate change accelerates the challenges, international cooperation to share learning is increasingly important.
A key part of Australia’s support for climate resilient water management in South-East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific, is through our work within the Australian Water Partnership, which works closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and over 200 Australian partners across the public and private sectors.
The Australian Water Partnership supports a range of activities that draw on Australian expertise to respond to assistance from our international partners and governments, including on river basins, irrigation modernisation, integrated urban water management and environmental water.
This week gives cause for us to acknowledge this collective commitment as an organisation, and individuals, to finding water management solutions which is why we want to acknowledge and celebrate National Science Week.
As the impacts of climate change and other environmental factors continue to grow and exacerbate water security, eWater Group is best placed to provide support, program delivery and training for the protection of our most precious resource.
Who are we?
eWater Group is owned by the Australian Federal, State and Territory governments to further develop Australia’s world-class modelling tools and to provide support and training nationwide and internationally.
Our organisation is comprised of three divisions – eWater Solutions, the Australian Water Partnership and the Mekong Water Solutions to deliver water management solutions for communities in Australia and overseas.
We also partner with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and research groups and institutions to provide expertise and support for sustainable water management solutions in Australia and internationally, now and into the future.
Meet Rohan Kent, Australian Water Partnership
Our people who represent our organisation are exceptional. Our people bring years – in many cases decades – of experience from a diverse range of industries, including international development, science and technology, academia, public policy, project management, sales, and more.
We are an organisation dedicated to delivering water management expertise and tools in Australia and internationally through our three divisions – the Australian Water Partnership, eWater Solutions, and Mekong Water Solutions.
The Australian Water Partnership (AWP) is a key part of Australia’s support for sustainable water resources management in South Asia, the Mekong region, and the Pacific. Working closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AWP supports a range of activities that draw on Australian expertise to respond to assistance from our international partners and governments.
As the AWP Program Lead, Rohan Kent plays a critical role in our international program of activities, overseeing a diverse range of projects across the Indo-Pacific in river basin and water resources planning, urban and rural water, agriculture, flood and drought management, and climate resilience.
Prior to joining AWP in 2021, Rohan worked across several sectors, including health, education, humanitarian and international development, and Indigenous community programs, including Save The Children Australia as its Deputy Humanitarian Director, and at the Australian Civil-Military Centre in its Concepts and Capabilities Unit.
“Most of my career has been based around working with vulnerable communities through international development and a rights-based programming lens. Within these roles, I have worked closely with multiple stakeholders – many with differing or competing perspectives. This has helped me not only appreciate the need to take time to design projects carefully so there is not only a focus on sustainable outcomes but also ensure they are delivered in an efficient and effective way.”
“With any role or project, I believe effective communication cannot be underestimated; this helps to promote ownership and create a supportive environment around the project. And of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention how important accountability is within the project management cycle and how it must be encouraged so responsibility for actions is ensured.”
In addition, Rohan has worked across several development and disaster settings, implementing integrated programs in the protection, WASH, food security and livelihoods, and health sectors in the Philippines, Fiji, Pakistan, Iraq, and South Sudan.
While bringing decades of experience to AWP and its partners is nothing short of invaluable, it is Rohan’s understanding of the development sector, together with his compassion for the needs of the world’s most vulnerable people, that sets Rohan apart from others.
“Water security is a challenge that impacts us all. It’s not just about the ability to provide for industrial, agricultural, recreational, energy, and domestic needs. While these are important, we also need to consider the integrity and sustainability of our surrounding ecosystems.”
“It’s important that as Australians we continue to be involved in discussions around water security if we want Australia – and our neighbours – to enjoy continued sustainable development, the preservation of the environmental, and poverty reduction.”
“After all, as Australia, we have much to contribute given we have the privilege of having the oldest, continuing living culture in the world, who can share their knowledge and learnings on caring for water and waterways and promoting better water security.”
It is this commitment to finding solutions to real-world challenges facing communities impacted by climate change, access to water supply, and quality, that drives Rohan and his team to do more.
“Continuing the conversation doesn’t always mean we are the ones talking. Being present is important but so is acting with humility and patience in this space when we are engaging in conversation. My experience across the world in the aid and development sector has taught me to focus on ‘listening’ as well as to talk at the appropriate time.”
“We must listen to what rights holders and duty bearers’ needs are and work with them in partnership to drive innovative solutions and not just impose what we think they need upon them, no matter how good we think our solutions might be.”
“I remember listening to representatives from the Kaurna people at this year’s AWP Partners Workshop. They spoke of the need for people to take more time to listen to what the environment around us is saying. Indigenous knowledge is a critical source of water science. We need to recognise its value, and the ways that we can both share and learn from in this space.”
It is this level of commitment by Rohan to the vision and mission of AWP, and the wider eWater Group, that enables our organisation to have an indelible impact on the lives of people and their communities within Australia and internationally.
Who are we?
eWater Group is owned by the Australian Federal, State and Territory governments to further develop Australia’s world-class modelling tools and to provide support and training nationwide and internationally.
Our organisation is comprised of three divisions – eWater Solutions, the Australian Water Partnership and the Mekong Water Solutions to deliver water management solutions for communities in Australia and overseas.
We also partner with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and research groups and institutions to provide expertise and support for sustainable water management solutions in Australia and internationally, now and into the future.
