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 is prepared because the practice of assurance of water accounting reports is currently not available.
- No information is disclosed about material events that occurred after 30 June 2020, 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 item:
– Aquifers
This is because water store flows could be quantified but a storage volume for this item 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.
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.
Jeff Perkins
General Manager, Environmental Prediction Services
Bureau of Meteorology
17 September 2020
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 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 2019 to 30 June 2020.
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 decrease of the region's water assets or an 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 an increase in water liabilities. Note that the definitions of regulated or unregulated entitlements for the purpose of the National Water Account may be different to the meaning applied by the jurisdiction (refer to 'Glossary').
Water assets and water liabilities that fail the recognition criteria
The volume of groundwater in the region's aquifers was not reported in the water accounting statements but replaced by a dash ('–') as it 'failed the recognition criteria' specified in the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, because:
- it could not be quantified in a way that is complete, neutral and free from material error; and/or
- it was unlikely to provide a future benefit to the region or the region's stakeholders.
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.
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 2015–2018 Accounts due to a prior period error. In the 2015 and 2016 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. In the 2017 and 2018 Accounts, allocated diversion to the irrigation scheme was incorrectly calculated using metered data from a diversion point already included in the metered data from the M1 offtake channel.
The comparative year items restated in this account include:
- Allocation remaining: irrigation
- Allocated diversion: irrigation
- Allocation remaining: individual users
- Allocated diversion: individual users
- Unaccounted-for difference
- Change in net water assets
- Closing net water assets.