Governance
The following statements and associated notes have been prepared according to the Australian Water Accounting Standard (AWAS):
- Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities
- Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Liabilities
The following components of the integrated accounts have been prepared according to the System for Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA):
- water assets
- physical supply and use of water
- monetary supply and use of water
- water condition/quality
This section provides governance information in relation to the parts of the integrated accounts that have been prepared according to AWAS. Further explanation of the parts of the accounts prepared according to SEEA is provided in the ABS Explanatory Note available on the ABS webpage.
Accountability statement
1. This water accounting report has been prepared and presented in accordance with the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, with the following exceptions:
- No Assurance Statement was prepared because the standard for, and practice of, assurance of water accounting reports are currently not available.
- Notes on the quantification approaches and levels of uncertainty are incomplete because the knowledge base is often inadequate.
- No information is disclosed about material events that occurred after 30 June 2018, such as extreme precipitation and significant water rights purchases. This information is publicly available elsewhere.
- Asset changes for water stores (surface water, groundwater and urban water) have been included in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities, without a corresponding water store asset volume being included in the Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities for the following line items:
– Water table aquifer
– Underlying aquifer.
This is because water store flows could be quantified but storage volumes for these items could not.
- The volumes of water assets and water liabilities including the volumes of changes to water assets and water liabilities that failed the recognition criteria were reported in the water accounting statements with dashes ('–') in order to highlight data and knowledge gaps that may affect the water accounting statement balances.
2. The report has been compiled from the best data available, as detailed in the water accounting statement Notes, in the time available to compile it from a number of sources. The Bureau of Meteorology takes a nationally-consistent approach to report preparation and presentation, but for a few line items there may be local data of higher quality that were not used.
3. All significant and specific interpretations of the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1 for the purpose of the preparation of this report are explained in the 'Water accounting policies' note. The Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for these interpretations.
Dr Robert Argent
General Manager Water
Bureau of Meteorology
19 February 2019
Water accounting policies
Introduction
The information presented in the Canberra region water accounting report is based on collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology and:
- Australian Capital Territory Government, Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate
- New South Wales Department of Industry
- Icon Water
- Queanbeyan–Palerang Regional Council (QPRC)
- National Capital Authority.
This report has been prepared using an accrual basis of water accounting. The water attribute being quantified is volume and the unit of account is megalitres (ML). Where a reported volume is negative, it is shown in brackets. The applicable reporting period is from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, with comparative reporting periods shown for 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015, and 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016.
Recognition of water assets and water liabilities
Only water that is held or managed by the State or Territory licensing authority or the urban utilities and from which a future probable benefit can be derived by stakeholders of the region is defined as a water asset.
Water liabilities are constituted by present commitments to supply water, the discharge of which is expected to result in a probable decrease of the region's water assets or a probable increase in another water commitment to supply water.
Provided its volume can be quantified in a way that is complete, neutral, and free from material error, the volume of the water asset or water liability is recognised in the Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities.
Water held in storages that has already been abstracted from the entitlement system is deemed not to be part of the region (regardless of the storage's size or connection to the system). This is because the attendant water right has already been exercised.
Recognition of changes in water assets and water liabilities
The increases and decreases to the reported water assets and water liabilities consist of changes that can be quantified in a way that is complete, neutral, and free from material error. These volumes are presented in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities.
Precipitation and evaporation are recognised only in relation to the surfaces of open storage volumes. They do not represent all precipitation and evaporation within the region (notably, these processes occurring from the landscape are not captured).
That portion of runoff that flows into the surface water store (storages and rivers) is quantified and recognised in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities. This runoff includes precipitation captured in the catchment, less evaporation and infiltration, and is recorded as Runoff to surface water.
Allocation announcements on regulated entitlements have been recognised as increases in water liabilities. Note that the definition of regulated or unregulated entitlements for the purpose of the National Water Account (refer to 'Glossary') may be different to the meaning applied by the jurisdiction. Please refer to the Water markets note for more information on the allocations.
Water assets and water liabilities that fail the recognition criteria
The volumes of several water assets and water liabilities identified in the Canberra region were not reported in the water accounting statements but replaced by dashes ('–') as they 'failed the recognition criteria' specified in the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, because:
- they could not be quantified in a way that is complete, neutral and free from material error; and/or
- they were unlikely to provide a future benefit to the region or the region's stakeholders.
Water assets that failed the recognition criteria include groundwater aquifers (see Supplementary information note).
Changes to water assets and water liabilities that fail the recognition criteria
The volumes of several changes to water assets identified in the Canberra region were not reported in the water accounting statements but replaced by dashes ('–') as they 'failed the recognition criteria' specified in the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, because:
- they could not be quantified in a way that is complete, neutral, and free from material error; and/or
- they were unlikely to provide a future benefit to the region or the region's stakeholders.
The volumes that failed the recognition criteria include diversions for other statutory rights, leakage to landscape, river and floodplain losses, inter-region groundwater flows, and groundwater recharge and discharge to landscape (see Supplementary information note).