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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.

2 The WAA integrates data from different sources into a consolidated information set making it possible to link physical data on water to economic data, such as those in Australia's National Accounts.


ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK

3 The WAA was developed using the System of Environmental–Economic Accounts (SEEA) and the SEEA–Water. SEEA was first published by the United Nations in 1993 and was elevated to an international statistical standard in 2012. Environmental accounts extend the boundaries of the System of National Accounts (SNA) framework to include environmental resources, which occur outside the economic production and asset boundaries measured by the SNA.


RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WATER ACCOUNT AUSTRALIA AND NATIONAL ACCOUNTS

4 Water supply and use tables provide a framework to link core components of the National Accounts to physical information. Physical data are presented in supply and use tables while some linkages to economic data are also made.

• 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 34–36), is not included in total water consumption.

• 2010–11 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey (WSSS)
• 2010–11 Agricultural Census (AGC)
• 2008–09 Electricity Generators Survey (EGS)
• 2008–09 Energy, Water and Environment Survey (EWES)

• The 2010–11 NSW Water Supply and Sewerage Benchmarking Report (NSW Office of Water).
• Queensland Statewide Water Information Management (SWIM) under arrangements with the Queensland Water Directorate (QWD).
• The Department of Water, the Economic Regulatory Authority and major water corporations (Western Australia).

• National Water Commission (NWC) and Water Services Association Australia (WSAA) 2010–11 National Performance Report – Urban Water Utilities.
• National Water Commission (NWC) National Performance Report 2010–11: Rural Water Service Providers.
• Annual/environmental reports for 2010–11 from major 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 34–36).

• Distributed water use was the amount supplied to the Agriculture industry by water providers.
• Total water consumption by Agriculture was sourced from the 2010–11 Agricultural Census. Generally, the amount of distributed and reuse water consumed (collected on the ABS 2010–11 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 against Victorian Water Register (Department of Sustainability and Environment, State Government Victoria, 2011).
• The physical supply and use tables present an industry view of Agriculture. 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 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 (approximately 5%) of water consumption than the agricultural activity view.
• Note that the ABS publication Water Use on Australian Farms, 2010–11 (ABS cat. no. 4618.0) presents an activity view of agriculture – therefore its total consumption estimates are slightly different to the industry estimates presented in the physical water supply and use tables in the 2010–11 WAA.

• Estimated water use was modelled using benchmarked data from 2008–09 EWES and 2010–11 Business Activity Statement Unit Record Estimates (BURE).
• Estimates for in–stream water use and water discharges were modelled using 2009–10 WAA data.
• Mine dewatering is categorised as 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 editions of WAA prior to 2009–10, 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 and 2010–11 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 2010–11, so these data were modelled using administrative data from annual reports, websites and the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting System (NGERS).

• Physical water use was modelled based on benchmarked data from 2008–09 EWES and data from the Business Activity Statement Unit Record Estimates (BURE). Estimates of ANZSIC divisions O to R were derived using employee based coefficients derived from external data plus other administrative sources.
• Data on bore water use for parks and gardens in Western Australia were 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 from the ABS 2010–11 Water Supply and Sewerage Services Survey.)
• Self–extracted water use by households was calculated by applying average state "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 for the 2011–12 reference year. Water use by these industries has been modelled in this 2010–11 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 incorporated reported water use information from the 2008–09 EWES and corresponding industry output information from Business Activity Statement Unit Record Estimates (BURE). The relationship between water as a production input and industry output is identified from these 2008–09 survey results and applied to BURE. This structural relationship is assumed constant between years, meaning that the efficiency of water use is assumed to be the same between 2008–09 and these modelled water use estimates for 2010–11. Changes in water use efficiency will be identified when updated survey information becomes available for 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.

• Aquaculture, Forestry and logging, Fishing, hunting and trapping and Agriculture services were modelled from economic data collected in 2008–09 Energy Water Environment Survey.
• Electricity and gas supply estimates were modelled using administrative data from annual reports, websites and the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting System (NGERS). (see paragraph 30).
• Mining and Manufacturing industry estimates at the State/Territory level were modelled from economic data collected in 2008–09 Energy Water and Environment Survey and data from Business Unit Registry Estimates.
• "Other" industry estimates were modelled from economic data collected in 2008–09 Energy, Water and Environment Survey and data from Business Unit Registry Estimates. For some "other" industries only a limited amount of survey data were available and estimates were mostly based on coefficients of water use (see paragraph 31).
• For households, self–extracted water use was based on coefficients of water use (see paragraph 32).

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

• urban distributed water
• rural distributed water
• bulk water (both urban and rural).

• Consumer price Index (CPI) (ABS cat. no. 6401.0)
• Australian Demographic Statistics (ABS cat. no. 3101.0)
• Households and Family Projections (ABS cat. no. 3236.0)
• Regional Population Growth, Australia (ABS cat. no. 3218.0)
• Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0)
• National Accounts supply–use benchmarks
• 2010–11 Economic Activity Survey (EAS)

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

• These are compiled by the ABS for the water using industries and published in the Australian System of National Accounts (ABS cat. no. 5204.0) and reproduced in this publication.

• Expenditure on distributed water was 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 and 2009–10 household expenditure estimates, resulting in revisions to the estimates at the national level by – 4% for 2008–09 and by +1% for 2009–10.

• Government expenditure and social transfers in kind monetary data were obtained from ABS Australian System of National Accounts, 2010–11 (unpublished data).

• Revenue and expenditure on water and related services for the water supply industries were included in the 2010–11 WSSS for the first time and was supplemented by administrative data. Information on expenditure on water and related services by other industries was sourced from the 2010–11 Economic Activity Survey. The estimates for 2008–09 and 2009–10 have been revised and the scope of urban and rural distributed water has changed slightly (see paragraph 42).

• Water intensity can be expressed as the amount of industrial output produced from a corresponding unit of water used in the production process. This is expressed 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 2009–10 and 2010–11 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 water intensity.