Water - Water Use

Water Use

An insight into opportunities for improved water resource management and development

Approximately 73% of the water used in Australia (~24 000 GL) is supplied by rivers, 21% by groundwater aquifers, and the remaining 9% by harvest of overland flows. Surface water predominates in all States and Territories except Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Figure 24. Proportion (%) of Australia's total mean annual water use by state/Territory (1996/97)

Table 13. Australia?s mean annual water use (GL) by primary water source (1996/97).

Total	19 109	4 962	3.9
	Total use surface water (GL)	Total use groundwater (GL)	Ratio of surface water to groundwater use
New South Wales	9 000	1 008	9.0
Victoria	5 166	622	8.3
Queensland	2 969	1 622	1.8
Western Australia	658	1 138	0.6
South Australia	746	419	1.8
Tasmania	451	20	22.6
Northern Territory	51	128	0.4
Australian Capital Territory	68	5	13.6

Approximately 75% of Australia?s water is used in irrigated agriculture. New South Wales (48%), Victoria (25%) and Queensland (16%) account for almost 90% of all irrigation across Australia. About 20% of total water use is for urban and industrial purposes, the remainder for other rural uses such as stock and domestic needs.

In a typical Australian household in 1996/97 each person used around 274 L/day. Gardening is responsible for up to half of this use; flushing toilets uses approximately a quarter. People in Asia, Africa and Latin America use 50-100 L/day; people in the USA use 400-500 L/day.

Table 14. Australia?s mean annual water use (GL) by use category (1996/97).

Total	17 935	4 754	1 369	24 058²
	Irrigation	Urban/industrial	Rural	Total use¹
New South Wales	8 643	1 060	305	10 008
Victoria	4 451	987	339	5 777
Queensland	2 978	1 052	561	4 591
Western Australia	710	1 027	59	1 796
South Australia	819	292	53	1 164
Tasmania	276	186	9	471
Northern Territory	53	87	39	179
Australian Capital Territory	5	63	4	72

¹ Does not include in site groundwater use

² Not all water use could be assigned to use categories

On average, Australian water use increased by 65% between 1983/84 and 1996/97. This was mostly due to increases in irrigated agriculture. Urban centres have shown either low increases or net decreases in water consumption per person over the same period (AATSE 1999).

Urban water use per person in several State capitals declined over the 1990s mainly due to an increased awareness of the need to reduce water wastage and changes in water pricing. Much remains to be achieved, with changes to urban gardening practices and water efficiency in toilets being obvious opportunities for improvement. Industrial use is not large and is falling as industries become more water efficient, often coupled with increased emphasis on recycling or with efficiency gains in energy use as part of overall industry environmental responsibility (AATSE 1999).

The decrease in ?rural? water use indicated by this assessment supports the suggestion that

... rural domestic and stock water use has been declining in the pastoral zone and drier wheat-sheep areas. This is likely to have been due to rural population decline and destocking due to increased cropping in the agricultural areas and reduced carrying capacity of the natural pasture in semi-arid areas.

Water and the Australian Economy (AATSE 1999)

Table 15. Change in mean annual water use (GL) in Australia between 1983/84 and 1996/97 by water use category.

Total	14 600	24 058	65
	1983/84	1996/97	Percent change in use
Irrigation	10 200	17 935	76
Urban/ Industrial	3 060	4 754	55
Rural (including rural domestic)	1 340	1 369	-2

Figure 25. Change in mean annual water use in Australia between 1983/84 and 1996/97

Table 16. Change in total mean annual water use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97 by State/Territory.

Total	14 642	24 071	59
	Total use 1983/84 (GL)	Total use 1996/97 (GL)	Percent increase in total water use
New South Wales	6 250	10 008	60
Victoria	3 920	5 788	48
Queensland	2 330	4 591	97
Western Australia	834	1 796	115
South Australia	1 040	1 165	12
Tasmania	174	471	171
Northern Territory	94	179	90
Australian Capital Territory	n/a	73	-

Table 17. Comparison of Australia?s total mean annual water use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97 by water use category and State/Territory.

Total	10 238	3 063	1 341	17 935	4 544	1 369
	Water use 1983/84 (GL)			Water use 1996/97 (GL)
	Irrigation	Urban/ industrial	Rural	Irrigation	Urban/ industrial	Rural
New South Wales	4 910	953	391	8 643	1 060	305
Victoria	2 960	671	289	4 451	987	339
Queensland	1 200	628	503	2 978	1 052	561
Western Australia	338	447	49	710	1 027	59
South Australia	722	243	70	819	292	53
Tasmania	97	66	11	276	186	9
Northern Territory	11	55	28	53	87	39
Australian Capital Territory	n/a	n/a	n/a	5	63	4

n/a Not available, included in New South Wales figures.

States and Territories have put water allocation systems in place. Entitlements ensure security and reliability of supply. Trading maximises the value of water that is provided and water can be moved to high value uses.

Catchments across Australia are at differing levels of water resource development and use. In parallel with the need to move towards full volumetric allocations is the need to track allocations by use type. As a minimum, for those water resource systems where total extractive use is approaching sustainable limits and water quality thresholds, metering and water quantity management need to be implemented.

Australia wide, the Audit?s assessment of water use of approximately 24 000 GL per year generally agrees with the Water Account for Australia (ABS 2000) of 22 200 GL per year. The Audit?s assessment differed from the Water Account for Australia in several ways. The Audit:

was focused primarily on rural Australia and did not attempt to partition water use within urban centres;
aimed to gain a geographic understanding of water use and how this related to water licensing, environmental water provisions and to specific surface water and groundwater sources;
did not attempt to extrapolate or model water use; and
aimed to compare water use in the later 1990s with Water Review 85 (DPIE 1987).

Water use estimates for Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 have been derived by a number of different methods including the water use for water authorities (information provided with provider consent as part of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Water Account for Australia) and from other information gathered from the State and Territory water agencies. In some cases where water use information was not available, estimates were based on allocation (licences). In other cases an estimate of total water use was provided at State level only (e.g. New South Wales could not provide detailed water use data for unregulated surface water systems).

Adjustments have been made by State experts to take account of water diverted directly off stream and held in off-stream storages. A lack of water use monitoring in Australia, particularly in the rural and agriculture sectors, reduces our ability to assess the accuracy of these estimates.

Table 18. Water use categories used in Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000.

Summary (Level 1) water use categories	Detailed (Level 2) water use categories
Urban/industrial	Domestic
	Industrial
	Mining and minerals
	Power generation
	Commercial
	System losses
	Other
Irrigation	Pasture
	Cereal
	Other crops
	Vegetables
	Fruit
	Grapes
	System losses
	Sugar cane
	Other
Rural	Stock and domestic
	System losses
In situ	Environmental needs
	Other

To enable and facilitate water trading, changes in water allocation and definition of rights to water, use monitoring is important. Water use monitoring will also provide information for managers to track and to evaluate the effectiveness of allocation policies particularly in relation to highly and over-committed resources. Targeted monitoring of water use is an important component of water resource management as Australia seeks to maximise economic and ecological benefits from its water resources.

The detailed knowledge of the end use of the water is poorly recorded. Obtaining use data was one of the most challenging tasks of this assessment; 31% of surface water management areas and 30% of groundwater management units have no recorded use data. Only 52% of surface water and 56% of groundwater management units have water use data broken down to the detailed water use categories.

Surface water use

Surface water use across Australian States and Territories has increased to 20 300 GL with an overall 69% increase Australia-wide since 1983/84. The greater percentage increases were in Tasmania (173%) and Queensland (145%). By volume, New South Wales had the largest increase in water use by about 3000 GL.
Surface water use represents 83% of the total water used.

Figure 26. Change in mean annual surface water use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97.

Table 19. Change in mean annual surface water use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97.

Total	12 008	19 109	59
	Total use 1983/84 surface water (GL)	Total use 1996/97 surface water (GL)	Percent increase in surface water use
New South Wales	5 932	9 000	52
Victoria	3 714	5 166	39
Queensland	1 209	2 969	145
Western Australia	461	658	43
South Australia	498	746	50
Tasmania	165	451	173
Northern Territory	29	51	76
Australian Capital Territory	n/a	68	-

Figure 27. Availability of Level 1 and Level 2 surface water use data

Table 20. Availability of surface water use data (number of surface water management areas).

Total	225	169	325
	Summary (Level 1) water use data	Detailed (Level 2) water use data	Total number of surface water management areas
New South Wales	12	0	54
Victoria	31	30	32
Queensland	81	80	99
Western Australia	34	0	44
South Australia	19	14	34
Tasmania	18	18	19
Northern Territory	27	25	40
Australian Capital Territory	3	2	3

Table 21. Mean annual surface water use (GL) by summary (Level 1) use categories.

Total	15 354	3 303	451	19 109
	Irrigation	Urban/ industrial	Rural	Total
New South Wales	8 000	900	100	9 000
Victoria	4 021	860	285	5 166
Queensland	2 162	787	20	2 969
Western Australia	430	206	22	658
South Australia	465	269	12	746
Tasmania	266	179	5	450
Northern Territory	6	39	6	51
Australian Capital Territory	4	63	1	68

Groundwater use

Groundwater use across Australia?s States and Territories has increased 58% from 2600 GL to 4200 GL since 1983/84. In percentage terms, in some States, the increase in groundwater use is much higher-being about 200% for New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. In volume terms, Western Australia increased groundwater use by almost 800 GL followed by New South Wales with a 690 GL increase.
Groundwater use information is very limited in availability and reliability. A reliable estimate of groundwater use cannot be determined relative to the total groundwater allocated. Only 14% of groundwater management units have some or all water use metered. Some level of detail on water use is available for 286 or 56% of Australia?s groundwater management units.
Despite the lack of objective information, water resource managers generally contend that use far exceeds licenced allocation.

Figure 28. Change in mean annual groundwater use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97.

Table 22. Change in mean annual groundwater use (GL) between 1983/84 and 1996/97.

Total	2 634	4 962	88
	Total use 1983/84 groundwater (GL)	Total use 1996/97 groundwater (GL)	Percent change in groundwater use 1983/84 - 1996/97
New South Wales	318	1 008	217
Victoria	206	622	202
Queensland	1 121	1 622	45
Western Australia	373	1 138	205
South Australia	542	419	-22
Tasmania	9	20	122
Northern Territory	65	128	97
Australian Capital Territory	n/a	5	-

Table 23. Mean annual groundwater use (GL) by summary (Level 1) use categories.

Total	2 582	1 451	919	34	4 962
	Irrigation	Urban/ Industrial	Rural	In situ	Total
New South Wales	643	160	205	0	1 008
Victoria	431	127	54	10	622
Queensland	816	265	541	0	1 622
Western Australia	280	821	37	0	1 138
South Australia	354	23	42	24^*	419^*
Tasmania	9	7	4	0	20
Northern Territory	47	48	33	0	128
Australian Capital Territory	2	0	3	0	5

^* South Australia in site: not an extractive use and therefore not included in total water use figure.

Table 24. Availability of groundwater use data (number of groundwater management units).

Total	377	286	538
	Summary (Level 1) water use data	Detailed (Level 2) water use data	Total
New South Wales	49	41	50
Victoria	70	65	79
Queensland	46	21	107
Western Australia	134	133	174
South Australia	9	7	53
Tasmania	17	16	17
Northern Territory	49	3	55
Australian Capital Territory	3	0	3

Table 25. Metering of water use within groundwater management units¹.

Total	93	369	76	538
	Not determined	No	Yes	Total
New South Wales	-	39	11	50
Victoria	8	66	5	79
Queensland	28	57	22	107
Western Australia	40	1342	-	174
South Australia	15	27	11	53
Tasmania	-	17	-	17
Northern Territory	2	26	27	55
Australian Capital Territory	-	3	-	3

Metering of water use may be limited to specific use types (eg urban supply). Hence the use of metering within a grounfwater management unit should not be inferred to apply to all water use
Allocations >0.5ML/year require meters

Return on water use

The gross value from irrigated agriculture for 1996/97 was $7254 m.
The highest financial return in agriculture per hectare of irrigation comes from vegetables, closely followed by fruit. Financial return on net water use is similarly highest for vegetables followed by fruit.

Table 26. Water use and gross value for irrigated agriculture (1996/97) (modified after ABS Water Account for Australia 2000).

	Gross value ($m)	Net water use (GL)	Irrigated area (ha)	Value/ha $/ha	Value/GL $m/GL
Livestock, pasture, grains and other agriculture	2 540	8 795	1 174 687	2 162	0.3
Vegetables	1 119	635	88 782	12 604	1.8
Sugar	517	1 236	173 224	2 985	0.4
Fruit	1 027	704	82 316	12 476	1.5
Grapes	613	649	70 248	8 726	0.9
Cotton	1 128	1 841	314 957	3 581	0.6
Rice	310	1 643	152 367	2 035	0.2
Total	7 254	15 503	2 056 581

Achievements

Important achievements in Australian water use documentation include:

The ABS Water Account Project is a compilation of data from a range of sources. It details water supply and use for each State and Territory. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the results in May 2000.
Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 further defines water use by surface water management areas and groundwater management units. It links use to allocation and licensing arrangements.

Table of Contents for the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000

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Australian Natural Resources Atlas

Natural Resource Topics

Water - Water Use

Water Use

An insight into opportunities for improved water resource management and development

Surface water use

Groundwater use

Return on water use

Achievements

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Water - Water Use

Water Use

An insight into opportunities for improved water resource management and development

Surface water use

Groundwater use

Return on water use

Achievements

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