Only 4% of industry and 3% of the community are completely confident Australia has sufficient water security, according to the results of a survey into attitudes to water issues.
The Australian Water Association's Australian Water Survey attracted 2500 responses, which were published in the Australian Water Outlook in collaboration with Arup.
AWA CEO Jonathan McKeown says the results demonstrated there were areas of serious concern around water security and governance, while there is also an appetite among Australians to make use of alternative sources of water to ensure future supply.
Only 4% of industry and 3% of community respondents were completely confident that Australia currently has sufficient water security to meet social, environmental and economic needs into the future, with more than half of both groups saying they were not confident.
“Clearly the expectations of the Australian community on water security are not being met and both governments and the water industry need to work together to address these expectations," McKeown says.
“The Association is preparing a Water Security Scorecard to further analyse the level of water security in each state and territory that will be launched in May 2017. This Water Security Scorecard will measure the level of water security provided highlighting the achievements and gaps to safeguard our future water requirements.”
McKeown says the results also show a clear call for more investment in water infrastructure.
"Given the urgency of the problem, industry, government and the private sector must work together to find the best solutions and the best way forward," he says.
McKeown explains that the water industry is extremely capital intensive and highly regulated, with standards varying across each state. According to the ABS, Australia currently invests between $3.5 billion and $4.5 billion in water and wastewater infrastructure—equating to 8.7% of national infrastructure investment. Australian governments own and operate approximately $100billion in urban water infrastructure assets, according to Infrastructure Australia.
McKeown believes an initiative that increases the availability of capital for water infrastructure will reduce that pressure and enable governments to apply their funds elsewhere.
“We have seen alternative financing models work extremely well in the UK, with the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), a model which accessed superannuation funds to build a 25 kilometre long sewage interception, storage and transfer tunnel below the Thames River to prohibit overflows,” McKeown explains.
“There are many water infrastructure funding options available to Australian governments in addition to the TTT model depending on what the need is, including green bonds, public-private partnerships, direct structured leases, indirect structured financing, and long-term lease agreements, concessional loads, and grants just to name the more common ones.”
Despite the lack of confidence in water security, the Australian Water survey showed there was strong support from the community and the water industry for alternative, sustainable water sources.
The standout is recycled water. Traditionally, recycled water has been seen as a less favourable option, but the survey revealed 77% of community and 83% of industry are confident in using recycled water for potable use, provided it is treated to drinking water standards, and even higher when asked in relation to non-drinking uses. Idustry ranked recycled water as the most important non-drinking supply.
The study revealed the community is motivated to take direct action to address improved water efficiency, by either paying more to become more water efficient (74% saying they were willing to spend more) or taking steps themselves to reduce their own water consumption (less than 1% of respondents nationally reported taking no action to save water).
Read the full report here.