page_title: Water supply and sanitation in Australia
section_title: Service provision
hierarchical_section_title: Water supply and sanitation in Australia / Responsibility for water supply and sanitation / Service provision
caption_attribution_description: The water level at Canning Dam in Perth, Western Australia when the dam was down to 34.4% of its total capacity.
context_page_description: As Australia's supply of freshwater is increasingly vulnerable to droughts, possibly as a result of climate change, there is an emphasis on water conservation and various regions have imposed restrictions on the use of water.
  In 2006, Perth became the first Australian city to operate a seawater desalination plant, the Kwinana Desalination Plant, to reduce the city's vulnerability to droughts. A plant at Kurnell has also been built and supplies Sydney metropolitan area with water during droughts and low dam levels. More plants are planned or are under construction in Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Adelaide. The use of reclaimed water is also increasingly common.
  However, some desalination plants were put in stand-by modes in 2010 following above average rainfall levels and floods in 2010.
  Governments of Australian states and territories, through state-owned companies, are in charge of service provision in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, while utilities owned by local governments provide services in parts of Queensland and Tasmania.
context_section_description: At the local level, commercialisation and corporatisation of many Australian urban water businesses has led to management responsibilities being vested in commercial utilities, in contrast to earlier arrangements where services were provided directly by an arm of government. The role of the utility's board members is to provide commercial skill and focus, as well as to buffer the organisation from arbitrary political interference. The private sector is involved primarily through Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracts for major treatment plants, including desalination plants.
  The institutional arrangements for service provision vary among States and Territories. In parts of Queensland and in Tasmania, for example, local government is responsible for the provision of water services. In other states and territories, different arrangements have evolved. In New South Wales, Victoria and parts of Queensland, there are separate municipal retail service providers and state bulk service providers that cover large parts of each state. In other states, such as South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territories integrated state-level water utilities are in charge of both bulk water supply and retail distribution.
  South East Queensland has reformed its water sector in 2008. Under the new structure three state-owned authorities (Seqwater, LinkWater and the SEQ Water Grid Manager) are in charge of bulk water supply:
  Seqwater supplies water from conventional sources such as dams, weirs and treatment plants as well as water from non-conventional sources such as the Gold Coast Desalination Plant and the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project.
  LinkWater owns the transport infrastructure, and
  the SEQ Water Grid Manager operates the transport infrastructure.
  There are three retail utilities, each owned by a group of local governments: 
  Queensland Urban Utilities, which distributes water in five council regions (Brisbane, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Somerset).
  Unity Water serving the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay,
  and Allconnex serves Logan.
  North West Queensland. In the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland and in North West Queensland, the government-owned corporation SunWater provides bulk water to industrial, mining and power companies as well as local governments and farmers.
  In Sydney, New South Wales, a catchment authority (Sydney Catchment Authority) has been established to supply water in bulk to the retail water and wastewater utility Sydney Water, a statutory State owned corporation, wholly owned by the New South Wales Government.
  In Melbourne, Victoria, three government-owned companies (City West Water Ltd., South East Water Ltd., and Yarra Valley Water Ltd.) are the retailers and the wholesaler is a government-owned corporation, Melbourne Water. The wholesaler also controls the catchment for most of its supply.
  In Adelaide, South Australia (SA), water and sanitation services are provided by SA Water. In 1996 the SA Government awarded French-owned United Water a 15-year contract to manage and operate the metropolitan Adelaide water and wastewater systems on behalf of SA Water. SA Water retains ownership of all infrastructure, sets service standards, and implements the government's pricing policy. SA Water also maintains control of all asset investment decisions, billing and revenue collection. When the contract expired in 2011 SA Water decided not to short-list United Water for the follow-up contract. The South Australian government had accused the company of overcharging. In January 2011 the follow-up operation and maintenance contract with a duration of 6 years, plus another 6 years based on the performance during the first 6 years, was won by Allwater, a consortium consisting of Degremont and Suez Environnement from France as well as the Australian company Transfield Services.
  In Western Australia the Water Corporation, a government-owned corporation, provides urban water services. 
  In Canberra, and the Australian Capital Territory generally, a public-private multi-utility partnership (ActewAGL), of w
caption: Canning Dam, one of Perth's major dams, at 34.4% of capacity
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