Benchmarking of Australian irrigation water provider businesses

The Australian National Committee of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ANCID) has developed an effective and efficient process for benchmarking the irrigation water provider business in Australia. As of July 2003, ANCID has produced four annual financial year-based benchmarking reports, which have been commended both within Australia and internationally. The 2001/2002 ANCID benchmarking report presented data on 65 performance indicators, across 40 separate water provider systems. The increased focus on business sustainability, resource management, as well as emerging confidentiality issues for the irrigation water provider business in Australia, has recently led to ANCID restructuring its benchmarking reporting arrangements. This restructuring has seen the adoption of a three-tier reporting framework. The new framework will deliver the outputs currently sought by the users of the benchmarking data, including the irrigation water providers, industry regulators, water resource policy makers and the general community. The irrigation water provider benchmarking process in Australia is changing rapidly. This paper presents the situation as at July 2003. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.