Perth
22.1 Groundwater allocation announcements

This line item refers to the total groundwater allocation for all water supply in the Perth region not related to urban water systems or irrigation schemes. It includes groundwater allocations for individual users in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

The volume disclosed in the water accounting statements (298,251 ML) represents the volume of:

• water announced for groundwater allocation
  
• new licences and other variations that were granted during the 2011–12 year.

The water supply licences are divided into licence entitlement purposes. The following figure shows the annual allocation announcement for each licence purpose for the 2011–12 year.

Graph of annual allocation announcement for each licence purpose for the 2011–12 year

Most of these licences are issued to licence holders for periods of generally between one and ten years, with an annual abstraction amount specified and with annual compliance arrangements in place.

The total groundwater allocation announcement is assumed to equal 100% of the annual entitlement.

As at 30 June 2012, a number of groundwater licences had been issued in perpetuity. The average annual allocation of these licences is small (less than 1% of the total annual groundwater allocation). These licences are not subject to most of the compliance arrangements that the other licences have and do not have an anniversary date. The licence anniversary date for these licences is deemed to be 30 June 2012 for the purposes of calculating the annual allocation for the 2011–12 year. Almost all of these licences were issued more than ten years ago.

There is no uncertainty associated with this value.