Wrapping up Ozwater'15

AWA’s Ozwater’15 opened in Adelaide last week with a wonderful local Aboriginal presentation accompanied by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of Handel’s ‘Water Music’. This year’s conference theme was ‘Water for growth and prosperity’ and during the event two major strategic links were announced by the chief executive of the Australian Water Association (AWA), Jonathan McKeown - one with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) and the other with ANZ Bank.

Managing water risk

Australia’s hydro-climatic variability (droughts and floods) is one of the highest in the world; therefore, this means the businesses that rely on water are very much in the business of managing water risk, said Dr Rob Vertessy, director, Bureau of Meteorology. He said the bureau has amassed an incredible intelligence bank for managing water resources in Australia and when you put all this data together it constitutes an amazing toolkit for managing that risk. But, he added, the resource has no value unless it is being used.

AWA’s role in the strategic link with BOM is to ensure that the legacy of the government’s 8-year expenditure on BOM, which now totals over $400 million, has a life that goes into perpetuity. AWA will be working with BOM to create greater industry awareness and uptake of the bureau’s comprehensive range of water information products and services that may assist the water industry and others to make sound decisions based on evidence.

McKeown explained that a number of AWA members from the water, financial and agribusiness sectors were “unaware of the full extent of what was available from the bureau”. He said the BOM’s water forecast products would be particularly useful for financial institutions and the businesses they are investing in, providing “the information they need to understand the opportunities and risks of each investment”.

Exporting water expertise

Over the past 12-18 months, the AWA has also developed strategic alliances with Asia, and thanks to help through Austrade, McKeown said they have identified potential opportunities in Vietnam for the water sector. Although outside of its traditional ‘family’ of alliances, McKeown said the reason for the ANZ alliance is that the bank has one of the largest footprints across the IndoPacific region and this could enhance opportunity for AWA members.

ANZ is sponsoring the AWA Outbound Delegation program, which is being run later in the year. This program offers opportunities for AWA members to participate in four international water conferences and trade exhibitions in Vietnam, India, Singapore and Indonesia.

What’s still to do?

Outgoing AWA president Graham Dooley talked about the importance of a safe, reliable water supply, the successful drought-proofing of Australia and the potential to share this water expertise with countries such as Vietnam to improve their water systems.

As he hands over the reign of AWA president to Peter Moore, he said there are three profound issues still facing the water industry on a national basis. They are:

1. Mobilising investment capital from Australian super funds into the water industry.
2. Deeply embedding into our urban planning the liveable cities agenda.
3. Improving the handling ‘cleverness’ in universities, teaching and research relating to water.

Agribusiness

Bernard Salt from KPMG presented some interesting demographic analysis, saying that by the end of the 21st century, 11 billion people will be scrambling for food, water, energy and space. He said Australia has what the rest of the world wants and that makes us both valuable and vulnerable.

During the conference, there was much talk about unlocking the untapped potential from mineral-rich soils in regional Australia. Salt said the agribusiness needs to find ways to achieve better yields and productivity.

And while the agribusiness is inhibited by water and the cost associated with infrastructure, there are opportunities that need to be explored including alternative water sources such as groundwater, funding through overseas capital investments and possibilities for the commercialisation of farms.

Exhibiting

Over the three days of Ozwater, a wide range of technical papers was presented, a number of specialist workshops ran, the exhibition was packed with companies from the both the water sector and other industries and there were, of course, plenty of networking opportunities.

A few presentations included details on the benefits of benchmarking, which is a useful method of comparing performance between similar processes or activities, with a view to ongoing improvement and efficiency gains. The exhibition included new water technologies, analysis equipment, solar solutions and tools designed help benchmark and optimise the efficiency water and wastewater treatment plants. Many of these products and solutions will be featured in upcoming issues of Sustainability Matters magazine