Submission to the NWC 2014 Triennial Assessment Urban Water Futures

Last Friday, the Water Directorate submitted a response to the NWC 2014 Triennial Assessment Urban Water Futures that responded to the six thematic areas identified for discussion. A copy of our submission is available here.

Overall the Water Directorate supports the work undertaken by the NWC to advance urban water reform in Australia. However, our major concern has been, and remains, any suggestion that customers in regional NSW are not receiving adequate service and that they are exposed to water quality risks. Our previous submissions to various industry inquiries have always refuted this perception.

The recently released NSW Office of Water 2011-12 Performance Monitoring and Benchmarking Reports have highlighted the improved performance of the NSW water industry in recent years. The highlights of these two publications include:

• the typical median water supply residential bill in country NSW has increased by only 5%, in real terms, over the past 17 years, 
• 83% of the local water utilities in NSW carried out water recycling - mostly for agriculture – an increase of 36% per cent from nine years ago
• the total volume of recycled water in the 2011/12 financial year was 40 billion litres - this is 21% of the volume of sewage collected - higher than country Victoria, the National Median and all the metropolitan utilities except for Adelaide
• average annual residential water use has fallen from 330 kL to 155 kL per connected property - a reduction of over 53% over the past 21 years, and is lower than country Victoria, the National Median and all the other Australian states and metropolitan utilities except Melbourne and Brisbane. This achievement was assisted by strong community engagement through demand management and education programs, together with strong pricing signals provided, with a median water usage charge of 199c/kL for the first step,
• the water supply for 97% of the urban population in country NSW complied with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines with 48 LWUs already implementing risk based drinking water quality management plans and the remainder to do so by September 2014,
• operation, maintenance and administration cost per property for water supply was lower than Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, the National Median and the country utilities in all the other states, but higher than Sydney, Hunter, Perth and Adelaide,
• 92% of utilities have a sound strategic business plan and long-term financial plan,
• 92% of utilities have a sound water conservation plan and 93% have a sound drought management plan,
• water main breaks have remained much lower than all the other states and the capital city utilities, indicating good asset condition and appropriate investment in asset renewal programs,
• annual revenue was $1,086M and the current replacement cost of the assets employed was $25.2 billion, and
• overall compliance with the 19 requirements of the NSW Best Practice Management of Water Supply and Sewerage Guidelines is now 89% compared to 46% seven years ago

The Water Directorate supports innovative ways to source, deliver and manage water and engage with customers and partners to optimise these decisions. We would welcome the opportunity to meet with the NWC to clarify the role of the urban water sector in delivering liveability outcomes and the implementation of further institutional reforms and policy settings.