Risky Business: Integrating Cost to the Risk Management Improvement Program

Abstract

The Water Supply (Safety and Reliability) Act 2008 requires registered service providers to prepare a Drinking Water Quality Management Plan (DWQMP) report and submit it to the regulator. The DWQMP is a regulated risk management framework to ensure the safety of customers of drinking water service providers. There is a section of this report called the Risk Management Improvement Program (RMIP), which is a mechanism for the provider to demonstrate to the regulator how it will address the risks identified in the plan. It is the provider’s responsibility to ensure that funding or commitments to funding for any measures or actions identified in the program are secured through their organisation’s budget processes. The Central Highlands region is in Central Queensland, Australia. The region encompasses an area of around 60 000 square kilometres, making it just short of the size of Tasmania. It is home to around 30 000 people who live in the thirteen unique communities of Arcadia Valley, Bauhinia, Blackwater, Bluff, Capella, Comet, Dingo, Duaringa, Emerald, Rolleston, Sapphire Gemfields, Springsure and Tieri. The region is rich in minerals and agriculture, thriving on irrigation sourced from water storage on the Nogoa and Comet rivers. It claims the largest sapphire-producing fields in the Southern Hemisphere. The Central Highlands Regional Council Water Utilities team provides drinking water to these communities and as a water service provider, has a DWQMP. The implementation of the RMIP under the DWQMP is often challenging, especially for organisations with a significant geographic portfolio with a variety of aging assets such as Central Highlands Regional Council. All too often, the RMIP isn’t integrated into business as usual and lacks a practical scope of work and associated cost estimates to ensure these risks are addressed in the organisation’s budgets. In 2020-21, Central Highlands Regional Council approached the preparation of their annual DWQMP report differently. Each risk under the RMIP was assessed and scoped with a corresponding cost estimate, then integrated into the budget program for the upcoming 1-3+ years. The resulting outcomes were increased visibility of the RMIP, better understanding of the cost to serve by the entire organisation and a communication tool for the residual risk profile of the drinking water assets across the region.