Assurance Engagements on General Purpose Water Accounting Reports
The Australian Water Accounting Standard AWAS 2: Assurance Engagements on General Purpose Water Accounting Reports was published jointly by Water Accounting Standards Board/the Bureau of Meteorology and the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB).
The Standard establishes the requirements for assurance engagements and provides application and other explanatory material regarding the assurances practitioner’s responsibilities when accepting, conducting and reporting on a general purpose water accounting report.
The Standard has been published by the AUASB as Australian Standard on Assurance Engagements ASAE 3610; and by the WASB/Bureau as Australian Water Accounting Standard AWAS 2.
Download the Australian Water Accounting Standard 2.
Frequently asked questions: Australian Water Accounting Standard 2
Australian Water Accounting Standard 2 development documents
- Exposure draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 2
- Assurance engagement feedback from stakeholders
. - Stakeholder meeting comments (118Kb)
- Consultation Paper: Assurance Engagements on General Purpose Water Accounting Reports
- Consultation paper feedback received
Background to water accounting and assurance
Making water accounting a key part of water resources reporting is of national and international interest.
In 2004, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) established the intergovernmental National Water Initiative. COAG identified the need for consistent water resources accounting that could be standardised, compared, reconciled and aggregated.
The Commonwealth Water Act 2007 reaffirmed the national importance of water information and identified new functions for the Bureau of Meteorology in water accounting, including issuing water accounting standards. The Water Accounting Standards Board was established in April 2009 as an independent advisory board to the Bureau of Meteorology to oversee and coordinate water accounting standards development.
The Board has issued the following documents:
- Water Accounting Conceptual Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of General Purpose Water Accounting Reports
- Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, Preparation and Presentation of General Purpose Water Accounting Reports
- The Australian Water Accounting Standard 2 Assurance Engagements on General Purpose Water Accounting Reports
For an overview of assurance of water accounting, download the Bureau's Information Sheet 14: Assurance of Water Accounting
