South East Queensland's Institutional Reforms For Water Resilience - Lessons Learnt

Abel Immaraj - National Water Resource Systems Lead at Aurecon.
Previously Project Director of Seqwater Amalgamation Program Dept of Energy & Water Supply, General Manager Water Policy & Planning Qld Water Commission

To manage physical risks of droughts, floods, poor water quality and rising costs,
both regulatory and institutional responses are essential. These responses are
aimed at timely investments in infrastructure, in operational capability and in
stakeholder relationships. The lessons learnt in South East Queensland (SEQ) are
relevant as New Zealand implements significant reforms aimed at achieving
resilience amidst climate change, environmental decline, economic pressure and
emerging risks to services.
South East Queensland’s Millennium Drought commenced around 2001 and lasted
till 2009 coinciding with unprecedented population growth. Water and wastewater
services in SEQ were being provided by seventeen council owned businesses, with
widely varying levels of water security and operating models.
The unacceptable risk of water shortages led to significant investment in drought
resilience and institutional reforms between 2003 and 2008. Government invested
$6Bn in creating the interconnected SEQ Water Grid as well as additional supply
sources including surface water dams, groundwater, desalination and recycled
water. The government established Queensland Water Commission (QWC) and
Queensland Water Infrastructure Pty Ltd to manage drought risk across the
state and to develop required infrastructure.
Under the SEQ Water (Restructuring) Act 2007, four state Authorities were created
and the bulk water assets were vested with them: supply headworks (catchment
management, dams and water treatment plants) were vested with Seqwater, the
Desalination and Recycled Water Plants with WaterSecure, the transmission
network with LinkWater and the operation of the Water Grid with the SEQ Water
Grid Manager.
Under the Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008 and the SEQ Water
(Distribution and Retail Restructuring) Act 2009, the Council businesses were
amalgamated into three retail-distribution service providers owned by councils -
Queensland Urban Utilities, Unitywater and Allconnex were formed to
provide retail water supply services and end to end sewerage services.
The drought ended in 2009 followed by widespread flooding across Queensland in
January 2011. A Flood Commission of Inquiry was charged to examine and report
to the parliament on the causes and recommendations to address flood risk.
A change in government led to QWC being abolished and the amalgamation of
Seqwater, LinkWater, SEQ Water Grid Manager and parts of QWC to create the
Queensland Bulk Water Authority Seqwater which came into existence as a state-owned authority in January 2013.
Due to public concerns of rising water prices the government permitted councils
to resume control. Allconnex demerged in July 2012 to split into council businesses
- Gold Coast Water, Logan Water and Redland Water.
A major storm event in 2013 led to disruption to the main water treatment plant
as well as the majority of the regional water treatment plants, and supply capacity
was reduced. Later that year the recycled water scheme was placed into care and
maintenance and the desalination plant was put into stand-by mode, to reduce
costs.
This paper presents these reforms, the lessons learnt, conclusions and
recommendations to consider when developing and implementing reforms aimed
at sustained resilience of complex systems that include water services,
environment, climate, economic, social and political dimensions.