3.9.2  Regional Queensland

Outside the metropolitan regions, SunWater provides bulk water services to approximately 70 regional local councils and bulk water for irrigation. In 2013-14 SunWater supplied a total of 1,628 GL of water for urban, irrigation and industrial uses.391 In the long-term, SunWater's projected supply of urban water averages around 1.2 GL per year, although actual supply varies based on water availability and climatic conditions. Local councils provide treatment, distribution, and retail water and wastewater services to residents and businesses.

Planning functions are predominantly the responsibility of local government water service providers working with SunWater, DEWS and other Queensland Government departments.

To assist certain local governments in undertaking this function DEWS is developing Regional Water Supply Security Assessments (RWSSAs) in partnership with local governments and water service providers to reach a common understanding of future demand and the performance of the existing bulk water supply systems used by the local governments to supply their communities. These assessments will forecast water demand for various population growth scenarios, taking into account water availability, reliability and multiple water users sharing the same resource. RWSSAs are currently being developed for Charters Towers, Gladstone, Whitsunday communities, Maryborough, Hervey Bay, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville, Cairns and Mt Isa. SunWater is progressing a number of supply augmentation schemes, including Nathan Dam and pipelines and Fitzroy River infrastructure options. Further water supply augmentations will be required in regional areas before 2031 to service population growth, greenfield urban development and industry development. The nature and timing of this augmentation will be determined by the local governments responsible for supplying water services to their communities using the RWSSAs as input where they are available.

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391.  Sunwater (2014)