Clarity on water prices
IN response to correspondence and articles published in the Townsville Bulletin and other publications we wish to provide your readers with some facts in relation to the Queensland Competition Authority’s (QCA) final recommendations for irrigation water prices in the Burdekin Haughton Water Supply Scheme (BHWSS) operated by Sunwater.
Some grower organisations, politicians and individuals have either misinterpreted the QCA’S recommendations as they apply to the BHWSS, or are not letting the facts get in the way of the story they want to tell.
Rather than the 17 per cent increase in water charges quoted by some sources, the QCA has recommended a reduction in charges of up to 4.4 per cent in 2020-21 for the majority of BHWSS customers, which will be followed by an increase of 3.4 per cent on current prices by 2023-24.
The exception to this are BHWSS customers in the Giru Benefited Area (GBA), where the QCA has determined that the cost of Sunwater supplying irrigation water to the GBA does not warrant the continuation of a discounted tariff and those customers should transition to charges that fully recover costs as applies to other Sunwater customers in the scheme.
A continuation of discounted pricing for some sections of the BHWSS, which prevents Sunwater from fully recovering its costs, will adversely impact the remainder of the scheme.
The discounted tariff in the GBA was predicated on the assumption that only 51 per cent of its irrigation requirements would be provided by Sunwater and that the balance would be provided by underground supply and natural yield of the Haughton River.
However, the QCA determined that “the system is on average 95-100 per cent supplemented, and this is potentially reflecting a switch by GBA customers from naturally replenished groundwater to supplemented surface water”.
Claims that there will be a loss of cane production in the GBA with the potential closure of a sugar mill as a result of increased water charges are exaggerated, as the QCA recommendations require GBA irrigators to pay only 67 per cent of the water charges paid by
BHWSS channel customers by 2023-24.
BRIA irrigators do not support the price freeze at current charges advocated by some grower organisations, as it will deny the majority of BHWSS customers the reduction in 2020-21 charges recommended by the QCA.
A freeze on prices by government would signal disregard for the QCA process, and the accountability provided by the QCA’S oversight of Sunwater’s operational costs and efficiencies.