Canberra
19.4 Delivery to urban water system users

The volume reported in the water accounting statements is 43,949 ML that represents the total volume of water delivered to urban water system users within the Canberra region during the 2012–13 year.

This volume is comprised of two components:

• water supply to users from the urban water supply system: 43,754 ML
• water supply to users from the recycled water system: 195 ML.

This line item is made up of the potable, non-potable and recycled water provided for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal uses, individual agricultural users, other urban users and on-site irrigation use. Volumes were calculated for each water type and each water use category for both ACTEW Water and Queanbeyan City Council (QCC) and for the Canberra region.

The urban water supply system is one of three sub-components of Canberra's urban water system.  The three sub-components are the:

• urban water supply system
• wastewater system
• recycled water system.

Surface water (11.12) is the source of water supply for Canberra's urban water supply system.

Urban water consumption (part of 19.4) was 43,754 ML during the 2012–13 year, representing 91% of all urban water supply system outflows. The remainder was mainly non-revenue water and other operational losses.

The following figure shows all the inflows and outflows associated with the urban water supply system. For more detail on a particular flow associated with the urban water supply system, refer to the line item notes.

Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for Canberra's urban water supply system. Line item numbers are provided in brackets.

Recycled water supplied to urban water users was 139 ML, less than 3% of the recycled water produced.

During the 2012–13 year, approximately 3% of the recycled water produced was delivered to urban users, primarily for industrial use and local irrigation. Approximately 96% of the recycled water was used on-site at wastewater treatment plants throughout the region.  The following figure shows all the inflows and outflows associated with the recycled water system.

For more detail on a particular flow associated with the recycled water system, refer to the line item notes. Note that volumes annotated with an * indicate flows between sub-components and are not reported in the account. As such, these flows do not have an associated line item number.

Schematic diagram of water inflows and outflows during the 2012–13 year for Canberra's recycled water system. Line item numbers are provided in brackets.

Billing data.

ACTEW Water.

The volume of water delivered to end users from ACTEW Water was the sum of the following components.

(1) Residential use, and (2) Commercial, industrial and municipal uses

(1) Data with a residential charge code were extracted from the billed metered consumption for 2012–13.

(2) Data with a commercial, industrial or municipal charge code was extracted from the billed metered consumption for 2012–13.

 The values are derived from measured data, with some post processing of the data.

Commercial, industrial, and municipal uses

The volume of recycled water supplied was extracted from the ACTEW Water customer meter database.

Recycled water on-site irrigation use

The metered volume of recycled water was used on-site for irrigation.

There is potential for errors in the measure data used to derive volumes. For example, where an incorrect charge code has been applied to some meters.

The uncertainty is estimated to be of the order of +/– 10%.

The uncertainty is estimated to be of the order of +/– 5%.

Billing data.

QCC.

The volume of water delivered to end users from QCC was the sum of the following components.

(1) Residential use; (2) Commercial, industrial, and municipal uses; (3) Agricultural / individual irrigation use; and (4) Other use

Data with relevant charge codes were extracted from the billed metered consumption for 2012–13. The values are derived from measured data, with some post-processing of the data. There is potential for errors in the data, e.g. where an incorrect charge code has been applied to some meters.

Recycled water on-site irrigation use

The metered volume of recycled water was used on-site for irrigation at QCC sewage treatment plant.

The uncertainty is estimated to be of the order of +/– 10%.

The uncertainty estimate was not quantified.