'Poor management': regulator in hot water over licences

Groundwater licence holders in WA may be taking four trillion litres a year without much oversight. (Perry Duffin/AAP PHOTOS)

In one of Australia's driest states, authorities are not monitoring how much water is being pumped from the ground or if it's taken legally, a report says.

Western Australia's auditor-general found that the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) was not enforcing the conditions on the more than 12,000 water licences.