COLIBAN WATER SERVICE REGION DIAGRAM CCohuna murraymum river LLeitchville Macorna Raywood GunbowerGunb Neilborough Sebastian cockatoo hill Pyramid Hill Echucaa Boort Mitiamo Mysia Lockington Eaglehawk Jarklin Marong Wychitella Borung Rochester bendigo spring Korong Vale Dingee gully reservoir Kangaroo Flat Serpentine Wedderburn Elmore Lockwood South Raywood C r a eer l d e avoca river r Inglewood H i Bridgewater g Sebastian h Goornong w a a r y barkers creek eer mpm v reservoir campaspecamp river Marong o Harcourt ddo Bendigo Tarnagulla ddd o Bealiba loddonlo river Axedale Laanecoorie lakelakl keee eeppalockppalolocck Castlemaine Dunolly mccay reservoir Heathcote Elphinstone Maldon Harcourt Taradale Tooborac legendlegend Castlemaine Campbells Creek Chewton waterwater supply systemssystems Elphinstone Newstead malmsbury reservoir Fryerstown Taradale campaspecampaspe Guildford cocolibanliban lauriston Malmsbury reservoir goulburngoulburn malmsburyryy Kyneton lauristonn groundwatergroundwater upper coliban upper colibann Tylden reservoir loddonloddon murraymurray wimmera TrenthamTrTTrenthTrerentrerenthentnththam northn o rtth 08,0008,000 16,00016,000 32,00032,000 sewersewer metres water scale – 1:650,000 non potable water (untreated) recycled water Disclaimer: This illustration is provided as a guide only. Coliban Water reserves the right to alter information at any time. © v5 210914 Coliban Water. INTRODUCTION ABOUT THIS REPORT CONTENTS This Annual Report describes the programs, initiatives and Coliban Water Service Region Diagram Inside cover actions we undertook between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016. Coliban Water Rural System Diagram Inside back cover It reports on our progress in implementing our 2015/16 Introduction 1 Corporate Plan. Chairman and Managing Director’s Message 3 Our Strategic Direction 4 VISION Customers and Community Engagement 6 Water to live, grow and enjoy. Water Security 9 Capital Projects 16 PURPOSE Water Quality and Reliability 17 We deliver water services for community needs now and into Wastewater System 22 the future. People and Development 25 OUR PROFILE Environmental Sustainability 27 Coliban Region Water Authority was established on 1 July 1992 Social Sustainability 31 under the Water Act 1989 as a Regional Urban Water Authority. The Governance and Risk 32 Authority became the Coliban Region Water Corporation on 1 July Statutory Performance 36 2007 and operates as Coliban Water. Our shareholder is the Victorian Government. Our responsible Minister for the period of Performance Report 40 1 July 2015 until 22 May 2016 was The Hon. Lisa Neville MP, Director’s Certification 40 Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water. For the period 23 May 2016 until 30 June 2016 it was The Hon. Lisa Neville Independent Auditor’s Report 44 MP, Minister for Water. Disclosure Index 46 We provide water and wastewater services to a region with a Financial Performance Summary 48 population of approximately 160,000 people, across 16,500 square kilometres of Central and Northern Victoria. Our service Financial Overview 49 area covers 49 towns in nine separate supply systems, extending Understanding the Financial Statements 51 from Cohuna and Echuca in the north to Kyneton and Trentham in Financial Statements 52 the south; and from Boort, Wedderburn, Bealiba and Dunolly in the west to Heathcote and Tooborac in the east. Independent Auditor’s Report 91 ABORIGINAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Coliban Water proudly acknowledges our region’s Aboriginal community and their rich culture and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge Aboriginal people as Australia’s first peoples and as the Traditional Owners and custodians of the land and water on which we rely. We recognise and value the ongoing contribution of Aboriginal people and communities to Victorian life and how this enriches us. We embrace the spirit of reconciliation, working towards the © State of Victoria, Coliban Region Water Corporation 2016. equality of outcomes and ensuring an equal voice. This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. 1 COLIBAN WATER | ANNUAL REPORT | 2015–16 INTRODUCTION CONNECTIONS ASSET SNAPSHOT The assets we manage to deliver our services include: Connection 30 June 2016 30 June 2015 > 2,245 kilometres of water mains (potable and non-potable) Residential 66,412 65,372 > 48 kilometres of recycled water infrastructure Non-residential 6,801 6,754 > 1,904 kilometres of sewer mains Rural licences 1,374 1,355 > 146 kilometres of water distribution pipelines and channel system SERVICES > 442 kilometres of rural channels > 16 water treatment plants + 3 operated by Veolia Water We provide urban water and wastewater services in accordance (Bendigo, Castlemaine and Kyneton) as a BOOT(1) partner with the provisions of Part 8 – Water supply and Part 9 – Sewerage, of the Water Act 1989. Rural customers are supplied > 14 water reclamation plants + 2 operated by ETE Coliban Pty under Part 4 Division 2 Section 51 of the Act. Ltd (Echuca and Rochester) as a BOOT(1) partner Our services include: > 35 water reservoirs and service basins + 4 operated by Veolia > Water harvesting Water as a BOOT(1) partner > Water storage > 1 recycled water factory > Water treatment > 177 wastewater pump stations > Water distribution > 66 water pump stations > Urban wastewater collection > Treatment, re-use and disposal, including trade waste Infrastructure assets, property, Net book value > Water purchase plant and equipment (000’s) > Recycled water > Rural water supply Land 37,673 Buildings 3,305 Plant and equipment 2,466 Water infrastructure 396,126 Water distribution infrastructure 176,715 Sewer infrastructure 446,707 Recycling infrastructure 34,215 Rural infrastructure 138,677 Headworks infrastructure 160,919 BOOT schemes infrastructure(1) 147,125 Works in progress 14,747 Total 1,558,675 (1) BOOT – Build Own Operate Transfer. These assets are owned by our BOOT partners COLIBAN WATER | ANNUAL REPORT | 2015–16 2 CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE On behalf of Coliban Water, we are pleased to present our 2015/16 plan is to fully fund our capital investment from operating cash Annual Report detailing our business performance for the reporting flows and for the first time repay a modest amount of debt, in line year. This report contains our audited financial statements, with our strategy. statutory disclosures and other information. Our water resources were secure throughout the year, with Coliban Water provides essential water and sewerage services for Permanent Water Savings Rules in place for all urban supplies and our customers. Through our business activities, we actively our rural customers received full allocations for the 2015/16 support the enhancement of the social fabric, environmental season. The El-Nino conditions that prevailed for the majority of health and economic development of the communities we serve 2015/16 resulted in prolonged dry periods during the year, and in which we operate. We are committed to collaboratively and particularly over summer and autumn when water consumption is meaningfully participating in the continued growth, well-being and typically high. We also encountered much drier than normal sustainability of our region and enabling our region to take conditions during the 2015 spring season, which led to low inflows advantage of opportunities that emerge in the future. to the sources of supply we rely on, and water allocations were lower in 2015/16 than the previous year for all surface water This year saw Coliban Water undertake its planned peak year of sources that supply us. Of particular note, the storage operator for works delivery under the capital investment program within the the Wimmera Mallee system allocated only 16 per cent of our bulk 2013–18 regulatory period for water pricing. We invested a total of entitlement volume, which necessitated us securing $51.3 million in much-needed upgrades and improvements to the supplementary bulk water through the purchase of water held and treatment process and network infrastructure of urban water and made available to us by another Wimmera Mallee system sewerage systems and the continued modernisation of the rural entitlement holder. This water purchase secured supply for our four water system supplying rural customers at Harcourt. Investment towns dependent on that system for their water. will see access to long term infrastructure that will deliver solutions for the growth and well-being needs of today and the future. Proactively, we suspended all other water allocation trading activity during the year, taking the prudent position of holding all With two-thirds of the works constructed, the Harcourt Rural bulk water in reserve and having the flexibility to then carry forward Modernisation Project resumed toward the end of 2015 after we the volumes held into next year should the dry conditions persist took the necessary action in June 2015 of taking the remaining and water allocations be further reduced. However, the transition works out of the hands of the lead contractor due to lack of from El-Nino towards La-Nina conditions during the 2016 autumn progress for a protracted period. We re-contracted incomplete saw an eventual break from dry conditions and the arrival of much pump station works to local contractors who had supported the welcome rainfall, although, with dry catchments, inflows to our project since construction first commenced and, using a southern reservoirs did not commence