The National Sewerage Program was an Australian

federal program In the United States, federal assistance, also known as federal aid, federal benefits, or federal funds, is defined as any federal program, project, service, or activity provided by the federal government that directly assists domestic governmen ...

under the

Whitlam Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the he ...

and Fraser governments established to provide funding for the expansion of municipal sewerage systems. At the time Australia was lagging behind other developed nations and, as of the commencement of the program in 1972, 17.2% of the Australian population were not connected to sewerage. Even in major population centers like

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and Melbourne, there was a backlog of over 318,000 homes waiting to be connected to municipal sewerage systems. The program was administered by the newly formed Department of Urban and Regional Development, and over AUD$330 million of funding was allocated to be distributed to individual states and territories over ten years. Over the life of the program the sewerage connection backlog was reduced by 30% to 40%. The program was abolished in 1977 by the incumbent Fraser government. Consequently, many communities struggled to connect to sewerage for decades afterwards.{{Cite news, url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122486298, title=Local governments 'need more funds', date=1985-02-27, work=Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), access-date=2020-01-18, pages=14

References

Engineering projects Public policy in Australia 1972 establishments in Australia 1977 disestablishments in Australia Sewerage infrastructure in Australia