eFlash #470
Date: 15-Feb-2021
In this edition: Release of the 2019/2020 benchmarking report for Queensland's Urban Potable Water and Sewerage Industry| Introducing your qldwater Strategic Priorities Group (SPG)
1. Release of the 2019/2020 benchmarking report for Queensland's Urban Potable Water and Sewerage Industry
The 2019/20 Urban Potable Water and Sewerage Benchmarking Report has been released for members to access through the qldwater website. This year marks the 10th edition of this report to be prepared and published by qldwater.
All indicators are obtained from the publicly available KPI reporting framework. This report provides a means for council owned service providers to compare their performance across a range of areas including capacity and viability, customer service, condition of assets, management and performance. Benchmarking is important for the industry as it allows competition by comparison and helps provide transparency for our communities.
For the first time the report is being published as a package that includes two PowerPoint presentations with charts for all water reporting entities separated into (1) medium, larger and extra-large service providers (>1,000 connections), and (2) small and indigenous service providers. The package includes a document providing explanatory notes and additional insights that should be read in conjunction with the charts.
The slide deck and explanatory report contains a suite of indicators and benchmarking data for all 72 of Queensland’s council owned urban water/sewerage utilities.
The 2019/20 Urban Potable Water and Sewerage Benchmarking package can be downloaded here.
2. Introducing your qldwater Strategic Priorities Group (SPG)
In 2020 the Directorate’s Technical Reference Group, first established in the mid-2000’s, elected to rename itself to more accurately reflect the nature of its business and its future approach. The new “SPG” remains the focus for members to have direct input into seeding and reviewing our work program.
After a year of mostly virtual meetings, we have settled on a model for the group where we meet quarterly, with every second meeting being extended and face to face and aligned with a qldwater event. The first for the year will be on 5 March to follow the skills forum.
On behalf of Chair Troy Pettiford, and Deputy Narelle D’Amico, we would like to reiterate that the door is always open for members to raise issues for consideration by the group – either directly through qldwater staff or with other SPG members. Changes to the membership are frequent but currently the following organisations attend regularly:
Banana SC
Burdekin SC
Cairns RC
Central Highlands RC
Charters Towers RC
City of Gold Coast
Fraser Coast RC
Gladstone RC
Gympie RC
Isaac RC
Livingstone SC
Logan CC
Mackay RC
North Burnett RC
Palm Island ASC
Redland CC
Rockhampton RC
South Burnett RC
Tablelands RC
Toowoomba RC
Townsville CC
Unitywater
Urban Utilities
The group has a long history of stimulating collaboration and troubleshooting. Irrespective of the size or location, urban water and sewerage service providers experience many of the same sorts of issues and you can potentially save yourself a lot of time and effort by asking questions of a group like this.
Please contact dcameron@qldwater.com.au if you’d like to propose items for the agenda or to get contact details for an SPG representative near you.