Page 1192 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2012
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the end of November, the second to the end of June. These reports are provided on a template prepared by the Australian Government and require information to be provided on agreed program milestones and outputs, consistent with the Commonwealth endorsed monitoring, evaluation, reporting and improvement (MERI) strategy.
An additional financial report is required to the end May indicating the anticipated financial result for the program as at 30 June 2012.
Evaluation of projects is undertaken in accordance with the endorsed MERI strategy. This includes a requirement on all delivery partners under the program to undertake a self-evaluation of their contribution to the program as part of their end of project reporting. The MERI officer employed in ESDD that coordinates monitoring and evaluation also undertakes external evaluations of project components.
The ACT Natural Resource Management Council (NRM), an advisory body to the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, has as one of its responsibilities to oversee this form of investment. The Council advises the Minister on the effectiveness of this investment and advises on funding priorities.
(11) The ACT Government provided $473,000 in 2010-11 as a complementary contribution to the program. The ACT contribution was directed to the following activities:
|
• Community Catchment Group Coordination |
$167,000 |
|
• ACT Community Waterwatch Program |
$119,000 |
|
• Engaging Urban Communities in Landscape Conservation |
$65,000 |
|
• Support for the ACT NRM Council |
$59,258 |
|
• Native Seed Bank and Seed Production |
$27,000 |
|
• ACT Frogwatch Program |
$24,000 |
|
• Monitoring and evaluation |
$11,742 |
(12) a) The ACT Government’s Rainwater Tank Guidelines for residential properties in Canberra contains the modelling of water savings on which the rainwater tank rebate water savings were estimated. Based on water saving and cost assumptions, a levelised cost ($3.31/ kL) was calculated for the program. This is higher than the current ActewAGL first tier charge of $2.33 / kL and compares favourably with the second tier charge of $4.66/ kL.
While rainwater tanks are not as cost effective as some other water efficiency measures, they offer diversity of supply and also provide environmental benefits (please see b below)
b) In addition to providing an alternative source of water, rainwater tanks serve two additional functions in urban water management. Firstly rainwater tanks reduce the run-off from urban areas so fewer pollutants are transported to our lakes and streams, protecting the environmental values in those bodies of water. Secondly, rainwater tanks in developed areas reduce the size of the peak storm flow, delaying the need for augmentation of stormwater infrastructure in suburbs with significant residential infill. Recent research by the Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney, found that the Rainwater Tanks Rebate program produced measurable and statistically significant savings and calculated that the average saving per household was 16.7 (± 6) kl per year.
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