Water Management Act 2000

For the purposes of this section, an individual daily extraction component means an entitlement of the holder of an access licence to take a specified volume of water on a specified day, whether or not it is limited to specified rates or in specified circumstances.

The holders of 2 or more access licences may apply to the Minister for consent to the assignment of the rights to individual daily extraction components between one or more of the licences.

An application may be made to assign an individual daily extraction component for a specified day or a specified period, or in specified circumstances, or any or all of them, and may relate to the whole or part of an individual daily extraction component.

The Minister may consent to the assignment of rights between the access licences concerned by—

a reduction or removal of the whole or part of one or more individual daily extraction components of one or more of the licences, and

a corresponding increase in the individual daily extraction components of the others.

A reduction or increase may be specified by the Minister to have effect for a specified period, or in specified circumstances, or both.

The assignment of a right to an individual daily extraction component does not entitle the assignee to take water in excess of the volume the assignee is otherwise authorised to take.

A holder of an access licence may acquire a right to an individual daily extraction component whether or not the holder has any available water allocation credited to the holder’s water allocation account.

An access licence is not cancelled merely because, as a result of an assignment under this section, it has a zero extraction component for the time being.

This section is taken to authorise the amendment of a management plan to provide for access licence dealing rules relating to dealings under this section as if the amendment were authorised by the plan and section 45 (1) (b) applies accordingly.