The Water Industry Competition Act 2006 (WICA) aims to encourage private-sector investment and innovation in the water and wastewater industries. It establishes a regime for third-party access to certain water infrastructure services in New South Wales.
Under the WIC Act, we are responsible for:
- administering certain aspects of the licensing regime, including:
- making recommendations to the Minister administering the WIC Act on applications for network operator and retail supplier licences;
- enforcing licences, including imposing penalties for contraventions; and
- monitoring compliance and reporting, to the Minister, on the extent to which each licensed network operator and retail supplier complies with its licence conditions;
- making recommendations to the relevant Minister on applications for, or for the revocation of, coverage declarations with regard to infrastructure services;
- approving access undertakings submitted by infrastructure service providers;
- arbitrating access disputes with regard to infrastructure services and sewer mining;
- regulating prices of licensees declared as monopolies by the Minister for Water, Property and Housing; and
- conducting investigations that enable IPART to exercise our responsibilities under the WIC Act.
You can find out more here.
Note: see important information regarding changes to the WIC Act.