In the NT, predominantly white towns such as Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine have a regulated and safe drinking water supply, but in Indigenous communities drinking water supply is unregulated, with many residents needing to resort to buying bottled water. And far from being an unavoidable consequence of life in remote communities, this is the result of ongoing failure by successive NT governments to plug gaps in water regulation. Towns in the NT are serviced by the government-owned Power and Water Corporation, which is subject to legislation, licensed by the Utilities Commission, and has enforceable obligations and service standards. Outside town boundaries, however, responsibility shifts to an unregulated, unlicensed and opaque subsidiary corporation, without enforceable standards. These gaping holes in the regulatory system treat urban, predominantly non-Indigenous populations differently to remote, predominantly Indigenous populations.

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Originally Appeared Here