AWR 2005 is one of a series of projects being undertaken to set in place the framework for National Water Initiative (NWI) implementation. Other nationally coordinated projects that will help jurisdictions implement their NWI commitments are listed below.

Water Governance Assessment

The Commission's baseline assessment of water governance arrangements (the water governance assessment) is an implicit requirement of Paragraph 105(i) of the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI). The assessment will describe and illustrate the role of key institutions responsible for managing all water sources (who sets policies and manages water) and the legislative and administrative arrangements in place to manage water (how things are done). In addition, the water governance assessment will provide some evaluative commentary on key water governance issues, particularly those aspects that are relevant to the implementation of the NWI.

The water governance assessment will include:

the key planks of water management—planning, regulation and trading
arrangements at the national, state, cross-border, regional and local government levels
urban and rural sectors
the role of private companies in water management where relevant (such as New South Wales irrigation companies)
other governance arrangements considered important in the context of effective delivery of NWI outcomes

The water governance assessment aims to be a comprehensive but simple description with minimal text and, wherever possible, diagrams and tables with web links to the relevant sources. It will draw on existing recent synthesis reports wherever possible (for example the 2005 National Competition Policy Water Reform Assessment ; Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet water trading studies; pricing stocktake; and the accounting stocktake). The results of AWR 2005 will be used in the water governance assessment because the two assessments address a number of common issues.

Accounting stocktake

Sinclair Knight Merz has been engaged by DAFF to assess and analyse Australia 's water accounting practices. The aim of this project is to guide the development of:

standards and guidelines to underpin a national water accounting system
processes that support consistent water measurement, monitoring, accounting and reporting

The findings of the project will help the Australian, state and territory governments meet the requirements of Paragraph 80 of the NWI:

ensure that adequate measurement, monitoring and reporting systems are in place in all jurisdictions, to support public and investor confidence in the amount of water being traded, extracted for consumptive use, and recovered and managed for environmental and other public benefit outcomes.

The accounting stocktake project is divided into four steps, as follows:

Step 1—develop the information requirements of accounting systems at the different levels of water management, against which the initial stocktake of the nation's water accounting systems can be prepared
Step 2—in all states and territories, undertake a stocktake of jurisdictions' and water service providers' current water accounting systems (including current arrangements to account for environmental water), focusing on the agreed information requirements, and having regard to the links between existing registration and accounting systems
Step 3—analyse the information collected in the stocktake to identify best practice, information gaps and areas for improvement
Step 4—make recommendations for development of water accounting standards, principles for environmental water accounting and guidelines for reporting and information, including priorities for standards, guidelines and systems development

The project is overseen by the multi-jurisdictional NWI Committee of the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council, with advice from an Expert Advisory Panel that was established by the NWI Committee. DAFF and the Commission are responsible for day-to-day management of the project.

Performance indicators

The NWI Committee and DAFF are developing a set of indicators to measure the performance of the NWI in terms of economic, social, and environmental outcomes. The objectives of the NWI are listed below and these are the key components that are to be measured through performance indicators:

clear and nationally compatible characteristics for secure water access entitlements
transparent, statutory-based water planning
statutory provision for environmental and other public benefit outcomes, and improved environmental management practices
complete the return of all currently overallocated or overused systems to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction.
progressive removals of barriers to trade in water and meeting other requirements to facilitate the broadening and deepening of the water market, with an open trading market to be in place
policy settings that facilitate water use efficiency and innovation in urban and rural areas
recognise the connectivity between surface and groundwater resources and connected systems so they can be managed as a single resource

The performance indicators are currently in draft form (see table below for examples). They will be further refined by AWR 2005 and other projects as part of the NWI.

Examples of objectives and performance indicators

Objective	Performance Indicator
To inform the NWI objective of achieving: Transparent, statutory-based water planning	Measuring the proportion and volume of water systems that are: a) covered by a water plan b) not covered by a water plan, but identified as requiring one c) not covered by a water plan, but identified as not requiring one d) not covered by a water plan, and not yet assessed in terms of requirement
To inform the NWI objective of: Statutory provision for environmental and other public benefit outcomes, and improved environmental management practices	Measuring the proportion of water use for consumptive and environmental purposes

Benchmarking framework for pricing and service quality

In accordance with paragraphs 75 and 76 of the NWI, the Benchmarking Roundtable Group is investigating a national framework for reporting independently, publicly, and on an annual basis, benchmarking of pricing and service quality for urban and rural water delivery agencies. The data requirements of the study include:

performance indicators for rural and urban water utilities reported under five headings—baseline explanatory data, social data, health data, environmental data, and financial data
performance indicators closely aligned with those collected by the Water Services Association of Australia for urban water utilities and the Australian National Committee for Irrigation and Drainage for rural water utilities
raw data collected from jurisdictions to underpin construction of performance indicators for urban and rural water delivery agencies
data audited under an agreed set of auditing principles by the Water Services Association of Australia or jurisdictions

The first reporting period for the benchmarking framework study will be the 2005–06 financial year.

Metering and measuring standards

The NWI Committee, National Measurement Institute, and Standards Australia are developing a set of metering and measuring standards to specify how individual water meters must be built and installed. This process will:

produce pattern approval standards for metering
produce standards for product specifications (in the form of Australian Standards) for design specifications

This is based on Paragraph 88 of the NWI, which requires the production of specifications and standards for water metering.

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Last Updated 29/06/2007