Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

A massive volume of water rights, the largest ever in the Australians island of Tasmania, is set for sale by the timber production firm Gunns.

The amount is about 28,000 megaliters, substantial amounts of it from natural streams. It will be put up for auction; the sale price has been estimated at $12 million to $15 million.

Irrigators in Tasmania indicated some general approval for the idea.

When faced with some of the biggest legislative changes to the water rights space in more than 100 years, Goulburn-Murray Water (G-MW) turned to technology to navigate through turbulent waters.

The water entitlements sector in Australia, which is worth an estimated $25 billion, and $4 billion in Victoria alone has gone from strength to strength following the introduction of the National Water Initiative in 2004 and the Commonwealth Water Act in 2007.

Both the NWI and the Commonwealth Water Act aimed to provide a national blueprint for water reform including a long term strategy for how Australia manages, measures, plans for, values, prices and trades water for its highest economic use. In Victoria, the implementation of large scale water reform in 2007 under the Victorian Government’s blueprint for water reform “Our Water Our Future” rewrote the way water entitlements were managed, traded and accounted for across the State.

With more than 700 staff, G-MW provides water-related services across more than 68,000 square kilometres in the Murray Darling Basin region.

As one of Australia’s largest rural water entitlement managers, G-MW had several priorities in tackling these industry changes.

In response to these changes the organisation realised it needed to position itself to readily adapt to future legislative changes and drive improved efficiency within its business processes through enhanced business information systems.

To tackle these objectives, G-MW implemented TechnologyOne Financials and Property & Rating in July 2007.

G-MW business systems manager John Vise said, “When it came to navigating change, getting it right from the start was critical”.

“It was important for G-MW to choose a mature system that could handle future changes and migrations, so the organisation wouldn’t have to turn to consultants for advice and support.

“What we were looking for was a complete technological solution which would transform our business to meet specific legislative demands, streamline our customer management system and preserve a high standard of customer service.

“If we didn’t evolve with these changes we were simply going to be left behind and not be able to deliver quality information and service to our customers.

“Staff also needed easy access to all our corporate information to help us plan for the future of our business and produce multiple reports.”

To help deal with the ongoing complexities of water delivery rights and water entitlements, G-MW used the TechnologyOne Property & Rating system to help them establish a fully integrated and flexible revenue, regulatory and water management solution.

The Gillard Government will provide $22 million in funding to the NSW Government for a pilot water metering project in the upper Murray.

The funding will ensure that up to 1,200 water licence holders in the upper Murray will receive a new or upgraded water meter as part of the pilot project, saving more than 10 billion litres of water a year in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Federal Government Water Minister, Tony Burke and the NSW Minister for Water, Phillip Costa today announced the funding which will improve the management of New South Wales’ water resources and deliver a more secure future for all water users in the state.

The Murray Pilot Project is an early works project under the Federal Government’s commitment to contribute up to $221 million for the NSW Water Metering Scheme.

The Scheme aims to improve measurement of water extracted from groundwater, regulated and unregulated rivers by installing high accuracy, tamper proof and low maintenance meters across the NSW Murray-Darling Basin.

“This $22 million Government investment will allow landholders in the upper Murray to better prepare for the future by delivering a more effective way to manage their water,” Tony Burke said.

Minister Costa welcomed the Australian Government funding and said it would allow NSW to build on its ongoing efforts to improve water use and management.

“In return for the $22 million in funding, it is estimated that more than 10 billion litres of water will be saved,” Minister Costa said.

“Sixty per cent of savings will be transferred to the Australian Government to be managed by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder and 40 per cent will be returned to water users.

“Accurate metering of water usage will mean improved water security and delivery for water users.”

The news media in Australia is abuzz with reports about business leaders travelling the globe selling rights to Australian water.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on September 4, that “Tomorrow, savvy Australian businessman Richard Lourey will climb aboard a plane bound for Hong Kong to sell our water to the world. Not water in bottles. Farm water. He wants to bag $100 million from overseas investors in Asia, Europe and North America to buy up permanent water rights along the Murray-Darling Basin, one of the longest river systems in the world. He plans to lease it back annually to those who want it – and can afford to pay. Lourey is one of the new breed of global investors who see fresh water as business – big business.”

The Murray-Darling basin is the main river system for the eastern half of Australia.

It also noted that Summit Water Holdings, a firm led by a founder in San Diego but now a subsidiary in Australia, “bought up $20 million worth of our permanent rural water rights two years ago and is on the lookout for more. As Dickerson puts it: ‘You might remember the old Will Rogers saying, ‘You ought to buy land because they ain’t making any more of it’. He could have said the same thing about water.”’

That prompted Australian Broadcasting to note, in a web article, that “In 2003 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists discovered that despite the World Bank’s contentions that it does not force privatisation on the poor, research by ICIJ and the bank itself showed that privatisation is playing an ever-increasing role in bank lending policies. Using data available from the World Bank Web site, ICIJ analysed 276 loans labelled “water supply” awarded by the bank between 1990 and November 2002. In about one third of the projects, the World Bank required the country to privatise its water operations in some way before it received funds.”

A majority of farmers across a region of Australia which have received so little water in the last few years that they’re giving up agriculture and selling off their water rights.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is reporting that a majority of farmers in the Campaspe region, in Victoria, are selling their water rights to the government. the immediate trigger for the action is the need to upgrade water transmission facilities, which may be costly, and could become costlier per water user with the decline numbers. [see Australian Broadcasting Corporation, March 14, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/16/2847258.htm]

Media in Australia and Tasmania are reporting a collection of purchases of land with water rights attached – the water being presumably the key component in the deals.

The Mercury reported on January 17 that “The Sunday Tasmanian revealed last week that Hydro Tasmania is trying to negotiate a cap with about 60 farmers who own properties with the right to take as much free water as “reasonably” required from the Lake and Ouse Rivers to irrigate their properties.”

Another Tasmanian farm was sold at auction for more than $9.3 million, in large part because of its “uncapped” water rights.

Australia has been facing serious water supply issues in recent years, and a flurry of water rights activity has begun there. But the country also has been taking a look at how others have handled water issues. Here’s a post from the government of Australia with its take on water management, or the lack of it, in Canada:

There is a lack of water governance in Canada, especially at the federal level. Oil sands water technology is improving and most of the water used in oil sands production is now recycled.

Trends and opportunities, The market:

Climate change (evaporation of fresh surface water), Canada’s major energy and resource sectors, bulk water exports, rapid urban growth, and subsequent ageing infrastructure are all driving the country’s water drain at a time when water demand is at an all time high in Canada.

Sixty per cent of Canada’s rivers flow north into the Arctic and most are difficult to access. In addition, the country’s supply of glacier water is not replaceable and difficult to reach. Canada has the highest individual consumption of water after the USA and doesn’t have a national water policy in place.

There is a lack of water governance in Canada, especially at the federal level. The Conference Board of Canada has said that Canada is not ready for the challenges ahead, including demand on resources due to global economic growth and continued climate change.

Residential and commercial water use for consumption, manufacturing and local agriculture is primarily managed by local utilities and municipalities. Provincial governments manage water rights (especially in rural areas) in terms of licences, usage, and allowing transfers of water. For example, British Columbia has identified 8,000 small run-of-river hydro energy sites on Canada’s west coast.

Major industry (natural resources and energy companies) also play a major role in securing their water sources.

Most wastewater systems are owned and operated by municipalities. All levels of government share the responsibility for managing the collection, treatment and release of wastewater effluent. Federal Government is responsible for managing the risks posed by substances listed under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. They also own, operate or fund a number of federal wastewater treatment and collection systems.

Drought patterns are returning to the Canadian Prairie Provinces – river systems like the South Saskatchewan, Old Man, Peace and Athabasca show signs of drying up. These drought patterns are bound to intensify with global warming. Already, the glacier that feeds the important Bow River in Alberta is melting quicker than expected. These rivers serve as critical infrastructure to major industry sectors, mainly agriculture, natural resources, and energy. Continue Reading »

Irrigators in Tasmania may be asked to pay ongoing fees for their use of water rights.

The water right licensure process typically involves the payment of some fee for the regulatory work, but the use of the water as such ordinarily does not have a payment attached.

That may change in Tasmania, the island near (and part of) Australia.

There, contracts already are being sent to irrigators who would have the first right of purchase. The site Farmonline reported December 3 that “But taking that up will require a deposit of either 25 per cent or 10pc of the $1100-$1200 per megalitre sale price and in the current climate that might prove difficult for many.”

increasingly difficult business conditions may cost the largest cotton grower in Australia many or all of its water rights.

That would be Cubbie Station, which owns a massive volume of water rights in southern Queensland. it is estimated to own 538 gigaliters of water, and it may sell at least 70 gl to help pay its bills. The buyer may be the Australian federal government, which has indicated it is interested in talking with any willing sellers of water rights.

[see The Australian, August 27]

An Australian state government – that of Victoria (in the far southeast, and including Melbourne) – which had blocked further water sales to the Australian federal government appears to have dropped some of the roadblocks to Murray-Darling Basin water that it had set up.

The Victoria government had a policy of limiting to 4 per cent (up until 2014 when the policy was sunsetted) water rights traded away from its irrigation districts. Now, the federal government will get some exemption from the policy.

However, the use of the waters will be limited, and a series of environmental standards were agreed to. [see Sydney Morning Herald, September 24]