Water and sewerage infrastructure and water resources are critical to the ongoing prosperity of Australia's mining, agriculture, manufacturing and industrial sectors. In our cities and towns, water supply infrastructure is critical to the wellbeing and prosperity of households and businesses.
At the broadest level, the water sector in Australia can be split into urban and rural sectors:
■ the urban water and sewerage sector typically provides treated water, wastewater and drainage services to households, industry and businesses. Untreated water, recycled water and stormwater are also supplied to industry and for recreational facilities such as parks, sporting fields and golf courses; and
■ the rural water sector supplies bulk, untreated water to regional towns and to support irrigation activities such as pastoral, agricultural and horticultural enterprises. Rural water infrastructure also supplies bulk, untreated water to support mining, power generation and other industrial activities in regional and remote areas.
By their nature, water and sewerage services are provided via integrated networks, rather than from discrete pieces of infrastructure. While water and sewerage services have several elements in their supply chains, the services are largely supplied by integrated utilities undertaking all activities in the chain. This means that it is only possible to identify revenue and output, the volume of service supplied and the economic contribution of the service, at an overall level rather than in terms of individual constituent parts.