Goulburn-Murray Water's (G-MW) 2007/08 Annual Report has confirmed a diverse range of rapidly evolving challenges for water management in northern Victorian. The report, from Australia's largest rural water corporation, is available from G-MW's website.
According to G-MW's Chairman Stephen Mills, G-MW's commitment to continuous improvement, the initiative of staff and the advice from Water Service Committees and customers ensured G-MW met the challenges, and especially the difficulties brought on by more than a decade of severe drought.
"Despite the trying conditions we have ended the year in a sound financial position. After adjustments for depreciation and Government grants, G-MW recorded a $5.2 million profit with the bulk of this surplus resulting from works we have deferred due to drought but will need to be undertaken in coming years," said Mr Mills.
The Victorian Government's Drought Relief package provided $35.9 million to G-MW customers to assist with meeting their fixed water charges.
"Our customers own their water. G-MW's job is operate and maintain the assets that harvest, store and deliver their water - this means around 80% of customers' charges are fixed and do not vary with water availability. The Government rebate provided relief for our customers in a very difficult season," said Mr Mills.
The Victorian Government also provided funding for water savings initiatives, salinity and national Landcare projects and for costs associated with pumping the Waranga Basin. These funds represented 37% of G-MW's total revenue.
Partnerships improve outcomes from drought-reduced water resources
In reflecting on the year, Mr Mills nominated the introduction of unbundling, establishment of FutureFlow and its progress in delivering around $120 million of works, along with the Federal Government's water buybacks as important developments for G-MW, but delivering water when and where its needed as efficiently as possible was the critical focus.
During 2007/08 approximately 1,200,000 ML of water was released from the storages and diverted from the rivers and streams across G-MW's region during 2007/08. Around 720,000 ML was used by customers including the environment, irrigators, domestic and stock users and urban water corporations. A further 197,000 ML of water was pumped from groundwater aquifers across G-MW's region.
G-MW, in partnership with customers, implemented a range of extreme operating measures to minimise system operating requirements and boost resources available for allocation to customers. The measures compromised G-MW's normal service standards however customer cooperation, infrastructure improvements funded by the Victorian Government, leadership by WSCs and efforts by staff combined to reduce system operating requirements to a record low of 372,000 ML for G-MW's Irrigation Areas.
"Without these extreme measures we estimate system operating requirements (losses) would have been closer to 580,000 ML in year where only 638,000 ML was delivered to customers in the Irrigation Areas and Campaspe Irrigation district," said Mr Mills.
- G-MW's Annual Report includes a 10 year summary of allocations for the Murray, Broken, Goulburn, Campaspe, Loddon and Bullarook Creek regulated systems, a 5 year summary of system performance within each of the Irrigation Areas and 15 year summary for Goulburn, Murray and Campaspe systems.
Drought also reduced the supplies available to environmental entitlement holders and to meet G-MW's environmental obligations.
"By working closely with DSE and local CMAs we were able to plan the movement of water across the network and region to maximise environmental outcomes. For example the lower Campaspe River benefited from additional flows that resulted from us delivering Goulburn Inter-Valley account water via the Waranga Western Channel and the lower Campaspe," said Mr Mills.
Mr Mills believes the local knowledge of staff at G-MW and CMAs was a critical factor in identifying and delivering these innovative solutions.
CG1-4 and Reconfiguration Program confirm benefits of modernisation
The improved performance achieved through channel automation is highlighted by results for the CG1-4 channels in G-MW's largest Irrigation Area, Central Goulburn.
"In 2002/03 outfalls from CG1-4 modernised channels were 1,850 ML, in 2007/08 they were 25 ML," said Mr Mills.
"G-MW delivered 50 times the amount of water for each ML of outfalls compared with 2002/03 - when allocations were also 57%. This is a fantastic result that emphasises the importance of modernisation to our future water security," said Mr Mills.
G-MW also ramped up its Reconfiguration Program increasing staff numbers from 7 to 17 in response to the growing momentum from working groups and customers.
"The Reconfiguration Program is transforming our irrigation network, providing opportunities for farmers to decommission assets that in many cases have been inherited through farm expansion or are relics from past farm practices. The on-farm transformation is illustrated by the simple fact that we are decommissioning 3.7 meter outlets for every one new outlet installed - farmers are putting in place irrigation services that are more water and labour efficient," said Mr Mills.
Water market provides transparent and rapid mechanism for sharing limited water resources.
Unbundling began 1 July 2007, and G-MW processed 20,000 business transactions including water share trades, allocation trades and bore construction licences in 2007/08 - a 30% increase on 2006/07. Across the year G-MW improved many of the systems and processes that support water trading leading to substantial improvements in processing times for customers.
"Unbundling began a new era for water ownership, management and use across our region. Its our understanding that around 4 out of 5 of our customers have made use of water trading to buy or sell water to match the business or farm needs - I expect this will grow over coming seasons and G-MW has the systems in place to support this growth," said Mr Mills.
- G-MW Annual Report includes detailed statistical summaries of water trading activity for the year.
G-MW FutureFlow Alliance delivers $120 million works program
G-MW established its Future Flow alliance in April to deliver remaining works on its Shepparton and Central Goulburn Modernisation projects, and subsequently expanded FutureFlow's works program to deliver the Northern Victorian Irrigation Renewal Project's (NVIRP) $103 million early works program.
"These works have nearly doubled the number of automated sites across our region and nearly tripled the number of automated gates - it's a massive boost to our ability to move water more efficiently along the network, to pinpoint disruptions to supply, to identify future modernisation opportunities and to verify future water savings and system improvements," said Mr Mills.
"In future years and decades I believe we will look back on 2007/08 as a critical period in the evolution of how we own, use and share water across our region, our state and interstate. I thank all our customers and partners including our local CMAs for their ongoing cooperation during such a difficult season, and congratulate the staff of G-MW for their achievements and commitment to delivering outstanding service to all customers and stakeholders," said Mr Mills.
Click here to download G-MW's 2007/08 Annual Report
- ENDS -
Media Contact: Linda Nieuwenhuizen
Position: Manager Corporate Communications
Telephone: 03 5833 5776 or 0412 183 792