National Water Account 2018

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Key findings

Climate and water

Water Accounting Statements

Supporting information

Region description

Reference information

Ord: Governance

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 and groundwater) 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.

• A volume for recharge from the landscape to groundwater has been recognised, even though its quantification is incomplete, in order to not inflate unnecessarily the unaccounted-for-differences.
• 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

29 November 2018

Water accounting policies

Introduction

The information presented in the Ord region water accounting report is based on collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology and the:

• Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation)
• Water Corporation of Western Australia (the Water Corporation).

The report has been prepared using an accrual basis of water accounting, with the exception of the physical water flow information. 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 2017 to 30 June 2018.

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 the region's stakeholders 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 liability.

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.

The regulated channel of the lower Ord River is recognised as a water asset when the electrical conductivity is below 1,500 μS/cm. Water in the regulated channel above this salinity level is not deemed fit for use and as such does not provide a future benefit to the Ord region.

Recognition of changes in water assets and water liabilities

Water assets and water liabilities that fail the recognition criteria

The volumes of several water assets identified in the Ord 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 lakes and wetlands, and groundwater aquifers (see Water assets note in 'Supporting information').

Changes to water assets and water liabilities that fail the recognition criteria

The volumes of several changes to water assets identified in the Ord 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.

Items that failed the recognition criteria include river loss, inter-region groundwater flows and groundwater discharge to landscape (see Water stores note).

Restatement of comparative year information

In accordance with the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, comparative year volumes must be restated in the statements if there is a prior period error or a change in item presentation. Comparative year volumes are not required to be restated if there is a change in scope or methodology, or subsequent data availability for the quantification of an item.

Comparative year volumes related to surface water liability were restated from the 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Accounts due to a prior period error. In these accounts, allocated diversion to the irrigation scheme was incorrectly estimated using on-farm use in the Ord Irrigation Area, rather than the total volume of water diverted to the area from Lake Kununurra. Similarly, allocated diversion to an individual user was also incorrectly estimated using on-farm data rather than the volume diverted from surface water.

The comparative year items restated in the 2018 Account include:

• Allocation remaining: irrigation
• Allocated diversion: irrigation
• Adjustment and forfeiture: irrigation
• Allocation remaining: individual users
• Allocated diversion: individual users
• Unaccounted-for difference
• Change in net water assets
• Closing net water assets

Reconciliations

Introduction

The following reconciliation tables verify:

• how the region’s closing water storage in the Statement of Water Flows reconciles with the total water assets reported in the Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities
• how the region’s change in water storage in the Statement of Water Flows reconciles with the change in net water assets reported in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities.

Closing water storage with total water assets

Net change in water storage with the change in net water assets