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EXPLANATORY NOTES


INTRODUCTION

1 The ABS Water Account Australia (WAA) is one of the environmental-economic accounts produced by the ABS based on the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA). It consists of supply and use tables (collectively referred to as flow tables) for both physical and monetary volumes. The aim of the WAA is to integrate data from different sources into a consolidated information set making it possible to link physical data on water to economic data, such as that in Australia's National Accounts.

2 Environmental-Economic accounts can provide information and improved understanding on a range of issues that include:

• a broader assessment of the consequences of economic growth;
• the contribution of sectors to particular environmental problems; and
• implications of environmental policy measures across sectors (for example, regulation, charges and incentives).

• individuals and companies that directly extract water from surface water and groundwater sources for their own use (e.g. domestic, industrial, agricultural or other uses);
• households, government and businesses that use water supplied by water providers for domestic, industrial, agricultural or other uses;
• water providers that extract water from surface water, groundwater and sea water for desalination, and supply it to customers for use (e.g. domestic, industrial, or other use). The majority of water providers are categorised in Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry (ANZSIC 281) but the Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity and gas supply industries also supply a small amount of water; and
• water providers that provide reuse water to their customers; other large organisations who treat water and make it available for subsequent reuse; other large organisations who discharge water directly to the environment (e.g. power stations, mines); and major in-stream water users, for example aquaculture and hydro-electricity generation, where this information is available.

• the volume of rainwater used by agricultural crops/pastures that are directly rain fed;
• discharges to the environment resulting from the run-off of irrigation water;
• the reuse/recycling of water on-farm or on-site (i.e. within homes or businesses);
• non-point/diffuse discharges; and
• the impact of storm water infiltration into the sewerage reticulation system.

• Total water use is equal to the sum of Distributed water use, Self-extracted water use and Reuse water use;
• Water consumption is equal to the sum of distributed water use, Self-extracted water use and Reuse water use less Water supplied to other users and less In-stream use. The use of Distributed water by the environment (Environmental Flows (see paragraphs 33-36), is not included in total water consumption.

• 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey
• 2009–10 Agricultural Resource Management Survey
• 2008–09 Energy, Water and Environment Survey
• 2008–09 Economic Activity Survey
• 2009–10 Economic Activity Survey

• In New South Wales, NSW Office of Water. In particular, the 2009–10 NSW Water Supply and Sewerage Benchmarking Report .
• In Victoria, the Department of Sustainability and Environment. In particular, the 2009–10 Victorian Water Accounts.
• In Queensland, the Queensland Statewide Water Information Management (SWIM) under arrangements with the Queensland Water Directorate.
• In Western Australia, the Department of Water, the Economic Regulatory Authority and major water corporations.
• In Tasmania, the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.

• National Water Commission (NWC) and Water Services Association Australia (WSAA) 2009–10 National Performance Report - Urban Water Utilities.
• National Water Commission (NWC) National Performance Report 2009–10: Rural Water Service Providers.
• Annual/environmental reports for 2009–10 for various water providers.

• Volume of water extracted from the environment and/or the volume of water received from other water providers (this information was used to reconcile total supplies and to avoid double counting of water volumes).
• Volumes of water supplied to particular industries (e.g. Agriculture, Mining and Manufacturing) and for household use. This information was reconciled with water use as reported by water users. It also enabled the calculation of coefficients (e.g. ML/employee) for industries for which there was little or no data on water use.
• The amount of water used by the water supply organisation (including mains flushing and water used on parks and gardens operated by councils that supplied water).
• Volume of water lost from the supply system (including customer meter errors and system water losses).
• Volume of water discharged by location.
• Volumes of reuse water supplied to particular industries (e.g. Agriculture, Mining and Manufacturing) and for household use. Water reuse volumes were not imputed where water providers did not provide reuse water volumes.
• Distributed water supplied to households and the number of connections served by water supply and sewerage services. Where information was not available for distributed water supplied to households, neighbouring or matched Local Government Area (LGA) coefficients based on average megalitre use per connection were used.
• The amount of water released for environmental flows. This only includes those environmental flows released in accordance with a specific plan prepared in conjunction and/or approved by the appropriate environmental (resource) regulator (see paragraphs 33-36).

• Distributed water use was the amount supplied to the Agriculture industry by water providers.
• Total water consumption by Agriculture was sourced from the 2009–10 ABS Agricultural Resource Management Survey. Generally, the amount of distributed and reuse water consumed (collected on the ABS 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey) was subtracted from total water consumed; the remainder was assumed to be self-extracted water. Note that self-extracted water for the Agriculture industry includes all groundwater that is extracted by Agriculture businesses.
• Reuse water usage includes water used from regional reuse schemes.
• Data for Victoria were confronted by the Victorian Water Register (Department of Sustainability and Environment, State Government Victoria, 2010).
• Two different views of agriculture are provided in the 2009–10 WAA: an industry view and an activity view (presented in the Appendix only). In an industry view all businesses are coded to an industry according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC 2006). An industry view provides direct links to the economic information in the System of National Accounts. This enables data such as industry value added to be compared to water consumption.
• The Agriculture industry view presents only the agricultural activity that occurs in businesses where the primary income producing activity (i.e. the activity with value added that exceeds the value added of any other activity carried out by the same business) of the business is agricultural production. Businesses which undertake some agricultural activity but for which other activities provide most of the income are excluded from the Agriculture industry view. For example, a business which generates most of its income from transporting agricultural produce, but also grows some agricultural commodities would be classified to the industry Transport, postal and warehousing industry. The agricultural production is still counted but is attributed to the Transport, postal and warehousing industry. As such the industry view of Agriculture shows a lower level (around 5%) of water consumption than the agricultural activity view.
• The tables and graphs presented in the Agriculture section of this publication present an industry view for agriculture, while the Appendix presents an activity view. Note that, as in the 2008–09 WAA, the Physical water supply and use tables in this publication present the industry view, whereas previous editions of the WAA presented an activity view, so care must be taken when comparing the different sets of estimates.
• Note that the ABS publication Water Use on Australian Farms, 2009-2010 (ABS cat. no. 4618.0) presents an activity view of agriculture - therefore total consumption estimates are slightly different to the industry estimates presented in the Physical water supply and use tables in the 2009–10 WAA. However, the activity estimates presented in the Appendix are the same as those published in Water Use on Australian Farms.

• Distributed water use was the amount supplied to the Mining and Manufacturing industries by water providers.
• Reuse water use was the amount supplied to the Mining and Manufacturing industries by water providers.
• Estimates for self-extracted and in-stream water use and water discharges were modelled (see paragraph 32) by simple application of aggregate factors based on outputs from the 2008–09 Energy, Water and Environment Survey (EWES) and the 2008–09 and 2009–10 ABS Economic Activity Surveys (EAS) (note that these factors were based on economic data and were adjusted for inflation using ABS Producer Price Indexes (PPI) data (ABS cat. no 6427.0)). Note that for the 2008–09 WAA, estimates were sourced directly from the 2008–09 EWES, a three-yearly survey that was not run in respect of the 2009–10 reference period.
• Mine dewatering was assumed to be self-extracted in-stream (non-consumptive) use by the Mining industry. The water is usually used on-site or subsequently discharged to the environment.
• Only division level estimates are published at the State/Territory level (sub-division splits are presented at the National level) due to lack of survey input data for the Mining and Manufacturing industries. In previous editions of WAA, estimates for ANZSIC sub-division splits were published for Mining and Manufacturing for all states, however the modelled data which formed the basis of the 2009–10 estimates were deemed not sufficiently reliable for publication at the sub-division level.

• For the 2004–05 and 2008–09 editions of WAA, data for water use by electricity generators were sourced from the ABS Electricity Generators Survey of Water Use (a census of all energy producers with a greater than 10 MW capacity), however this survey was not run in reference to 2009–10, so these data were based on modelling using reliable administrative data from annual reports, websites and the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting System (NGERS).

• Estimates of water use were modelled (see paragraph 32) by simple application of aggregate factors based on outputs from the 2008–09 EWES and the 2008–09 and 2009–10 ABS Economic Activity Surveys (similar to Mining and Manufacturing - see paragraph 28), information supplied by water providers via the ABS 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey, as well as the application of industry specific coefficients.
• Data on bore water use for parks and gardens in Western Australia was provided by Western Australia's Department of Water.

• Distributed and reuse water use was the amount supplied to households by water providers (these data were sourced mainly via the ABS 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey.
• Self-extracted water use by households was calculated by applying average regional "volume (kL) per connection" coefficients and applying these to the households known not to be served by water providers (estimated by subtracting the connections served by water providers from the total number of households in each State and Territory). Data on domestic bore water use in Western Australia was provided by WA Department of Water. Note that self-extracted water use estimates for households do not include rainwater tank usage for households connected to mains supply.

• ABS conducts a detailed energy and water use survey every three years for the Mining, Manufacturing, Construction, Electricity Generation and the service industries. This survey (the Energy, Water and Environment Survey, or EWES) was conducted for the 2008–09 reference year, with the results feeding directly into the 2008–09 edition of WAA. The survey will be conducted again in the 2011–12 reference year. Water use by these industries has been modelled in this 2009–10 edition of WAA. Note that the water use estimates for households and agriculture are still conducted on the basis of annual surveys.
  
• The water use modelling incorporates reported water use information from the 2008–09 EWES and corresponding industry output information from the annual ABS Economic Activity survey 2008–09. The relationship between water as a production input and industry output is identified from these 2008–09 survey results and applied to the 2009–10 Economic Activity Survey. This structural relationship is assumed constant between years, meaning that the efficiency of water use is assumed to the same between 2008–09 and these modelled water use estimates for 2009–10. Changes in water use efficiency will be identified when updated survey information becomes available in the 2011–12 reference year.

• Planned (rules-based) environmental water relates to statutory requirements to maintain specific water regimes (e.g. particular levels, flow rates, aquifer pressures).
• Held (entitlement-based) environmental water relates to specific entitlements, which accrue annual allocations of water that can be extracted (or left in-stream) for environmental purposes.

• on the supply side of the tables in the Distributed column; and
• on the use side of the tables in the Environment row in both the Distributed and Reuse columns. Note that for the 2004–05 and earlier editions of the WAA there were no data available for 'reuse' Environmental Flows.

• Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry estimates were based on the ABS 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey and can be used with a high degree of confidence.
• Agriculture industry estimates were based on the ABS 2009–10 Agricultural Resource Management Survey and can be used with a high degree of confidence.
• Electricity and gas supply estimates can be used with a medium level of confidence as these data were based on sound modelling procedures using good quality administrative data.
• Mining and Manufacturing industry estimates at the State/Territory level should be used with a medium-low degree of confidence as estimates for these industries were modelled based on economic data collected in the 2009–10 ABS Economic Activity Survey.
• Only a limited amount of survey data were available for "other" industries - estimates were mostly based on coefficients of water use. These estimates should be used with a low degree of confidence.
• For households, estimates for distributed and reuse water use were based on information collected on the ABS 2009–10 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey and can be used with a high degree of confidence; self-extracted water use was based on coefficients of water use and can be used with a medium degree of confidence.

• supply of distributed water and water related services in the economy by the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry;
• expenditure on water and water related services by industries, households and governments; and
• value added to the economy by the major water-using industries.

• Consumer price Index (CPI) (ABS cat. no. 6401.0)
• Australian Industry (ABS cat. no. 8155.0)
• Australian Demographic Statistics (ABS cat. no. 3101.0)
• Households and Family Projections (ABS cat. no. 3236.0)
• National Accounts supply-use benchmarks

• Water suppliers' annual financial reports
• Public administration and finance data

• These are compiled by the ABS for the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry and are published in Australian Industry, 2009-2010 (ABS cat. no. 8155.0) and the Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0) and reproduced in this publication.

• Expenditure on distributed water is calculated by taking total volume and connected properties reported by each water utility, calculating average consumption values per household and applying the utility's fixed and variable tariff structures to these average values. Where tariff information is not available, an average water rate ($/kL) was applied to the volume of water consumed by the households within those service areas. This methodology has been applied to the 2008-09 household expenditure estimates, resulting in downward revisions to each of the State/Territory and National estimates. These revisions reduce the estimated value of household expenditure on distributed water by 8% at the National level. Please contact the Director of Environmental Accounts within the ABS for additional detail on the impacts of these revisions at the State and Territory level.

• Government expenditure and social transfers in kind monetary data were obtained from ABS Australian System of National Accounts, 2009–10 (unpublished data).

• Expenditure was estimated using modelled financial data sourced from ABS 2008–09 Energy, Water and Environment Survey, 2008–09 Agriculture Commodity Survey and 2008–09 Electricity Generators Survey of Water Use.

• Water efficiency can be expressed as the amount of industrial output produced from a corresponding unit of water used in the production process. We express this in the monetary tables as industry gross value added ($ millions) per GL of water used. Comparisons between industries and changes over time in the average gross value added per GL of water use is complicated by the impact of prices, particularly for Agriculture and Mining, where commodity prices can vary substantially from year to year. This is relevant for analyses of incomes (current prices) generated per GL of water consumed in a given year. For this reason, the percentage change movements in industry gross value added per GL of water consumed between 2008–09 and 2009–10 have been calculated using chain volume measures of industry gross value added. It should also be noted that the data represent industry averages. Changes over time in the mix of commodities produced by a broad level industry such as Agriculture, Mining or Manufacturing could result in significant changes in the average water use.