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Australia
Country profile
Market forecasts
Key indicators
Population
19.7 million
Population growth rate
1.11%
GDP per head
$26,520
GDP growth rate
3.7%
Total renewable resources
492 km
Current renewable resources per head 24,708 m/year
Current total abstraction
23,932 million m
Agricultural
75%
Municipal
15%
Industrial
10%
Sector structure
Around 300 utility companies provide water and wastewater services in Australias six states and two territories. The largest is the
stateowned Sydney Water Corporation in New South Wales (NSW). It serves more than four million people in the Sydney area and owns
assets worth over A$12 billion (US$8.95 billion). Sydney Water has an annual capital works programme in excess of A$500 million
(US$375 million). In 2006, the corporation decided not to go ahead with a large seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, preferring
instead to prepare designs so the plant can be constructed at short notice if water levels in the citys reservoirs drop below 30%.
In Victoria, the state-owned Melbourne Water manages Melbournes water supply catchments and collects and treats most of the citys
sewage. It provides approximately 500 million m/year of water to three retail water companies: City West Water, South East Water, and
Yarra Valley Water. In Adelaide, the privately-owned United Water has a 15-year contract with the state government and the South
Australian
Water Corporation (SA Water) to operate and maintain the citys water and wastewater assets.
In Western Australia (WA), there are 31 licensed water service providers. The Water Corporation of Western Australia provides water to
approximately 95% of all properties serviced in the state. The Water Corporation is building the largest seawater desalination plant in the
southern hemisphere in alliance with Multiplex and Degrmont. The plant, at Kwinana (Perth), will produce 130,000m3/d of water using
reverse osmosis technology, and became operational in November 2006.
Water resources and environmental management in Australia have traditionally been the responsibility of state and territory governments,
with the federal government in Canberra assuming a coordinating role. In 2005, however, the National Water Commission (NWC) was
created to manage Australias National Water Initiative (NWI), introduced the year before. The NWC is an independent body under the
Prime Ministers jurisdiction which helps state governments implement the NWI. Amongst others, the NWIs objectives
are to increase the efficiency of water use in Australia, for example through the increased use of recycled water, and to return river and
groundwater systems to environmentally sustainable levels of abstraction.
http://desaldata.com/countries/62
10/12/2009
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http://desaldata.com/countries/62
10/12/2009