Benefits of Water Meters
Water is a publicly owned resource to which water licence
holders are granted exclusive access and all water licence holders have an
obligation to be accountable for the water they take under their licence.
Therefore, all licensees must maintain a record of the volume of water they
take under their licence.
Accounting for your water factsheet (PDF 184Kb)
There are a number of ways that the volume of water taken
may be accounted for. Unless otherwise directed by the Minister to install a
meter, a licence holder is able/allowed to determine the methodology to account
for the taking of water that best suits their circumstances.
Water meters are
recognised as one of the most reliable methods to measure and account for water
taken under water licences. Metering provides benefits to water users as well
as water managers particularly in areas where water management is complex and
requires a high level of accountability.
Benefits to the licence holder of meters include:
better monitoring of on-farm water use and irrigation
efficiency to support business planning and improvement;
better monitoring of pump and irrigation system
performance;
improved matching and optimisation of irrigation to
crop water requirements;
Demonstrated water use accountability supporting
accreditation.
Metering will also assist water
managers to better manage Tasmania's water resources by:
improving information on water taken under water
entitlements to inform improved policy and management practices;
facilitating better water resource management and
planning to provide the optimum economic, social and environmental
outcomes from water use;
enabling improved compliance with licence conditions
and restrictions to ensure the protection of both water
users' legal entitlements and the environment.
Selection and Installation
In all cases where meters are
required under water licence conditions, it is the responsibility of the licensee
to make sure that appropriate meters are purchased and installed. In Tasmania,
the standard for specification, installation, validation and maintenance of
non-urban water meters is the Tasmanian Standard for Non-Urban Water Meters.
The Tasmanian Standard’s primary
objective is to provide an acceptable level of confidence that non-urban water
meters have been manufactured, installed, commissioned and maintained such that
measurement performance under in situ conditions is within the maximum permissible
limits of error of plus or minus 5%.
The Tasmanian Standard for
Non-Urban Water Meters contains detailed and technical specifications for non-urban
water meter installation, commissioning, maintenance and validation. Therefore,
it is strongly recommended that, even when installed voluntarily, meters are
installed and commissioned by an Irrigation Australia Limited Certified
Meter Installer and Validator both to ensure the meter functions
accurately and to minimise the potential for any costly repairs and
modifications to correct faulty installations.
A list of Irrigation Australia Limited
Certified Meter Installers and Validators can be found on the Irrigation Australia website.
If meters are not installed and
commissioned by an Irrigation Australia Limited Certified Meter Installer
and Validator the onus is on the meter installer
to install the meter in accordance with the Tasmanian Standard, including the
relevant sections of the Australian Standard AS 4747
Australian Standard 4747 Meters for Non Urban Water Supply (343Kb)
Tasmanian Standard
for Non-Urban Water Meters (2014)
Further Information
Phone 1300
368 550 - request to be put through to the Water Operations Branch.
Email: Water.Operations@nre.tas.gov.au