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National Performance Report: rural water service providers. Clare Quinn | National Water Commission 27 June 2012. Rural NPR. Five years of reporting to date. Reporting agencies, who account for 90% of Australia’s rural water supply network, provide information on:
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National Performance Report: rural water service providers Clare Quinn | National Water Commission 27 June 2012
Rural NPR • Five years of reporting to date. • Reporting agencies, who account for 90% of Australia’s rural water supply network, provide information on: • Characteristics (services, assets) • Customer service • Environmental & water management • Financial performance • Each year, all data collected is published, with supporting analysis.
Why? • In the National Water Initiative of 2004, all governments agreed on national water reform, & that: • States and Territories will report benchmarking and service quality for agencies including rural water service providers – independently, publicly and annually. • This would build on the irrigation industry performance monitoring and benchmarking system, then managed by the Australian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage.
Why? • The rural NPR’s benefits for the water sector and beyond include: • Showing performance trends over time • Identifying areas of sound performance • Substantiating expenditure priorities • Accountability to customers and regulators • Internal use for strategic planning and reporting • Use by policy-makers • Improved water literacy in the community • Citation by industry, government and academic publications
Reporting agencies: eligibility • Any rural water service provider can report. • A provider must report if it delivers water in one of the NPR’s service categories (in excess of thresholds applicable to each category) and recurrent costs of reporting are less than 1% of total revenue for water delivery services. • Service categories: • Regulated river supply • Network supply (gravity or pressurised) • Drainage • Surface water diversion (regulated or unregulated) • Groundwater diversion
Reporting agencies: 2010-11 NPR • NSW • Coleambally Irrigation Co-operative; Murray Irrigation; Murrumbidgee Irrigation; State Water • Queensland • Fitzroy River Water (voluntary); SunWater • SA • Central Irrigation Trust • Victoria • Goulburn-Murray Water; Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water; Lower Murray Water; Southern Rural Water • Western Australia • Harvey Water; Ord Irrigation
Results • Reporting for the period to 30 June 2012 will occur later in 2012. • To 30 June 2011, the time series showed these highlights: • Volume supplied at customer service points: decreased by 7% from previous year, reflecting decreases across Queensland, SA, Victoria and WA, and offset by an increase in NSW. • Real capital expenditure: continued to decrease, falling from $204 million the previous year to $168 million, due to the completion of large water security projects, and delays in other capital projects due to wet conditions including flooding in some regions. • Revenue: increased 14% to $359 million in 2010-11, despite the 7% decrease in total volume supplied.
Results continued…. • To 30 June 2011, the time series showed these highlights: • Operational expenditure: continued to increase, rising by 5% to $296 million. • Continued investment in modernisation and piping of gravity and pressurised irrigation networks: length of piped supply networks increased by 4% to 18,241 km. • Installation of compliant metering is beginning to feature as part of the capital spend. • Gravity and pressurised supply network delivery efficiency: 80% - highest level in time series.
Issues • Resource burden • Disparate reporting approaches • Errors • Multiple agencies collect water information
Audit • To assure that the rural NPR data is accurate and reliable, audit will commence for the 2011-12 report. • NWC provided an audit capacity assessment in 2010-11, to help agencies prepare. • A short-form audit report with findings and recommendations will accompany the report. • Audit will occur at least every three years. • This will bring the rural NPR in line with the urban NPR, which has been audited since 2006, providing a robust, cohesive snapshot of the sector.
Where to from here? • Preparations for the sixth year of reporting are underway. • NWC has invested in more streamlined data collection processes, via online database rather than spreadsheets. • Audit will enhance dataset’s integrity. • NWC’s renewed work program presents opportunity to query value of each aspect of the NPR, and refine reporting processes and the final analysis to enhance value for reporting entities, and users.
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