About qldwater
In 2003, the Institute established the Queensland Water Directorate (qldwater) to provide services to the urban water and sewerage industry.
qldwater is a business unit of IPWEA-QNT. Its members include the majority of councils, other local and state government-owned water and sewerage service providers, and affiliates.
As the central advisory and advocacy body within Queensland’s urban water industry, qldwater is a collaborative hub, working with its members to provide safe, secure and sustainable urban water services to Queensland communities.
It achieves this goal through a variety of programs, most notably:
-
The Queensland Water Regional Alliance Program – a collaborative program between Queensland Councils, qldwater and LGAQ (supported by the Queensland Government) aimed at helping Queensland councils work together at a regional scale to achieve efficiencies for their customers;
-
The Statewide Water Information Management (SWIM) Program – advocacy and continuous improvement supported by a sophisticated regulatory and business reporting and benchmarking tool;
-
The Queensland Water Skills Partnership – a collaboration among utilities to identify skills needs and solutions and encourage appropriate investment;
-
Other Industry Advocacy Services – focused on sustainable investment and planning, and fit for purpose regulation;
-
Industry communication, innovation and marketing initiatives – creating a distinct profile for urban water and sewerage and celebrating its achievements with often limited resources, to make the industry an attractive place to work and exploit its competitive advantages and collaborative culture.
History
qldwater was established in 2003, as a discrete industry group dedicated to Queensland urban water industry development and support with a strong technical focus – an expressed need that was previously not met by any existing industry body.
The Directorate was founded by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia Queensland. A Strategic Priorities Group oversees industry priorities and technical focus areas of the Directorate.
qldwater is a strong industry body with good working relationships with national water industry associations as well as Local, State and Commonwealth government agencies such as the Queensland Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water, Department of Environment and Science, Department of Health, Department of Local Government, Racing and Multicultural Affairs and the Bureau of Meteorology.