4.4 Physical model
5.1.5 Results
SUPPLY AND SEWERAGE SYSTEMS
The availability of skilled people is one of the major challenges facing the water and sewerage sector – not only regionally, but across Australia. The terms of reference for the Inquiry state that as a minimum, the Government expects water supply and sewerage service providers to:
“respond and plan in advance to the challenges facing the industry”.
This chapter looks at the challenge of skills and labour shortages, and ways in which the Industry may be able to respond and plan to manage this challenge.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN THE NSW WATER AND SEWERAGE SECTOR
Training and skills development in the NSW water and sewerage sector is carried out by a number of organisations through their programs. These include:
Training by the Department of Water and Energy (refer Appendix 4 for details).
On the job training (within local water utilities).
Trainee and graduate programs – to attract graduates to rural local water utilities.
The NSW Water Directorate – which provides an independent source of advice to councils on water and sewerage operations; provides direction on technical issues and provides networking opportunities for water and sewerage engineers to share knowledge and improve communication within the industry.
Training via technical networks such as the Australian Water Association and Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia.
TAFE and Universities.
Other associated sources of training include:
• Work Cover - Occupational Health and Safety training
• Roads and Traffic Authority – Road Safety
• Local Government and Shires Association
• Pipe supplier based courses
• Confined spaces training
• First aid.
Local water utilities, in their submissions to the Inquiry, listed a range of initiatives in place to address skills shortages. These include:
Mentoring programs (for example Harden Shire Council).
Trainee programs (for example Upper Hunter Shire Council, Moree Plains, Bourke Shire, Muswellbrook Shire, Orange City Council, Gunnedah Shire and Upper Lachlan Shire).
Apprenticeships (for example Coonamble Shire, Port-Macquarie Hastings and Eurobodalla Shires).
Succession planning (for example Byron Shire, Lachlan Shire and Glen Innes).
Migration visa program (for example Muswellbrook Shire).
Sub-contracting (for example Palerang Shire Council).
Alliance skill sharing (for example Warrumbungle Shire Council ).
Public-private partnerships (for example Bega Shire Council and Wagga Wagga Shire Council).
Despite these initiatives, with the predicted net decline in skilled labour and an ageing workforce, local water utilities face a shortage of skilled people to effectively manage water and sewerage services and infrastructure.
CURRENT SKILLS SHORTAGES
Skills shortages are becoming critical, and potentially dangerous, as explained by the Water Industry Operators Association of Australia in its submission to the Inquiry:
“Like many industries, the skills crisis is impacting on the water industry and its ability to attract and maintain quality staff with the correct amount of knowledge and
experience to be able to effectively control the systems. The lack of appropriate remuneration, lack of training and in many cases lack of engineering support, is a cause for concern and has been cited as a reason a number of experienced people are leaving the water industry. Training "on the job" is an all too common occurrence in the contemporary water industry. This issue is particularly evident in regional areas and we believe is seriously increasing the likelihood of a major water quality incident occurring somewhere in Australia. It is important to realise that this "on the job"
training is occurring in systems that have the potential to make large numbers of people ill as the disease outbreaks in Walkerton (Canada), Gideon (USA), Nokia (Finland) and Galway (Ireland) reinforce.”
Walgett Shire noted skills shortages in their top five challenges facing the utility:
“Developing and attracting qualified or experienced water operators and engineers / engineering managers that are willing to live or work in the Shire; and maintaining continuity of planning against rapid employee turnover.”
Lachlan Shire Council also identifies the availability of skilled staff at both operational and managerial level to be a major challenge.
“…Council is currently enrolling a number of works staff in water and waste water training programs which will assist in overcoming the shortage at an operational level but the recruitment and subsequent retention of management staff, particularly engineers, is extremely difficult…..
…Council already offers industry level salaries (with generous conditions). However, enticing potential staff to travel west of the Newell Highway is proving to be difficult.”
Submissions to the Inquiry showed that organisations managing and maintaining water supply and sewerage systems require a range of skills including but not limited to:
engineers;
senior managers;
planners;
tradespeople; and
technical services.
Research conducted by Infohrm Pty Ltd for the Water Services Association of Australia in late 2007 showed that the main current skills deficits in 18 participating Australian local water utilities are:
keeping abreast of developments in science and technology;
environmental sustainability;
technical skills such as environmental engineering and process technology, water quality, wastewater and biosolids;
leadership and a range of ‘people skills’ (managers and professional engineers); and
strategic thinking, business planning and risk management.
In their submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry in July 2007, the Local
Government Association of NSW and Shires Association of NSW (LGSA) stated that 92 per cent of councils reported existing or emerging skill shortages with the greatest deficiency being in planning and engineering. This data was drawn from the Training and Professional Skills Shortages Taskforce, which has been established by the Department of Local
Government. From the 66 interviews conducted with representatives from a range of
councils, the majority of respondents who reported a skills shortage in their council ‘defined a skills shortage as a lack of suitably qualified applicants in response to advertised positions, or where the demand of particular skills exceeds supply in the labour market’ (2005, p.2).
FUTURE SKILLS SHORTAGES
In its report titled ‘Addressing the Skills Shortage in the Urban Water Industry’, the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) states that for the major urban water utilities in Australia:20
“By December 2009, 25% of current staff will leave their current role in the water industry, by 2012 that number grows to 51% and by 2017, 84% will have left their current employment.”
The WSAA report concludes that in terms of the percentage requirement of staff required to be replaced over the next 10 years, the following ten most critical jobs across water utilities in Australia are as shown in Table 10.
Table 11. Anticipated Gaps In Water and Sewerage Sector Jobs By 2017. (Source:
WSAA (2008) Addressing the Skills Shortage in the Urban Water Industry, page 8)
Job Role Most Likely Gap by 2017
Electrical Engineers -107%
Professional Chemists -96%
Mechanical Engineer -80%
Environmental Paraprofessional (Scientific)21 -64 %
Civil Paraprofessional -63%
Plant Operator – Waste Water -61%
Environmental Paraprofessional (Engineering) -57%
Microbiologist -47%
Mechanical Paraprofessional -47%
Electrical Tradesperson -47%
Civil Engineer -45%
In addition to projected job gaps identified in the WSAA report, the water supply and sewerage management industry is rapidly changing as a result of drought, climate change and the development of recycling technologies. To manage these challenges, local water utilities are expected to need to develop or acquire new skills. These may include, but are not limited to:
Managing drinking water quality
compliance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, 2004
risk management plan prepared and implemented
maintain effective disinfection of water supply distribution systems
recycled water risk management
20 The data is based on a survey of 11,300 staff working in the water and sewerage services industry in Australia. Source: http://www.nwc.gov.au/news/skills_forum/SkillsShortage.pdf
21 Paraprofessional denotes those roles where skills are developed ‘on the job’ as opposed to through
Managing sewage treatment
compliance with regulatory requirements
risk management plan prepared and implemented
recycling effluent and biosolids Regulation of sewerage and trade waste
compliance with the rigorous NSW framework Managing outsourcing
contract management
managing the outsourcing of maintenance, operations, and planning Managing recycling technologies
technologies - for example: membranes/uv/ozone/bioreactors
private schemes (approvals)
water quality testing Mapping
Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping Asset and Financial Management
asset management
project management
commercial acumen
cost management
Why Are There Skills Shortages?
Reasons identified for planning and engineering skills shortages in the ‘Survey of Skills Shortages in NSW Local Government Report’ included:
not enough people graduating from planning/engineering to keep up with demand;
difficulty of attracting candidates to rural locations;
impact of uncompetitive rates of pay in comparison with the private sector;
unappealing image of local government; and
fierce competition for planners/engineers.
Skills shortages are likely to be more pronounced in smaller local water utilities servicing regional and rural NSW as a result of a reduced population, and therefore, skill base to draw from, and skills often migrating to coastal cities and regional centres. Approximately 74% of local water utilities in NSW are classified as ‘small’ in NSW – that being, serving less than 10,000 connected properties.
Large water utilities are less likely to experience chronic skills shortages as a result of their customer base including a large town/regional centre, and their ability to compete for skills in a competitive human resources market.
As demonstrated in the aforementioned studies, some local water utilities are experiencing significant skills shortages, which are expected to become more critical in the next ten years.
OPTIONS TO ADDRESS ANTICIPATED SKILLS SHORTAGES
Some interrelated options to address future skills shortages could include, but are not limited to:
1. Training Incentives for Small Local Water Utilities
This would be done through the university and TAFE system, and would offer specific scholarships to prospective students from regional areas to study engineering, water and sewerage plant operation, microbiology, and other critical skills needs.
2. Pool Human Resources amongst Local Water Utilities
The Water Directorate encourages councils that are experiencing skills shortages to join with other councils in either an alliance, county council or regional authority structure (Water Directorate Submission to Inquiry, 2008, page 7). Indeed, the drivers for local water utilities in the Lower Macquarie Valley councils to form an alliance were stated to be resources
(including staff resources) and skills/expertise.
Several local water utilities already share human resources, for example the services of a liquid trade waste officer, in order to cost-effectively achieve sound regulation of trade waste dischargers in their area. This kind of sharing arrangement could be extended and
strengthened. Gwydir Shire Council 'has initiated discussions with Moree Plains Shire Council regarding the possibility of a loose professional alliance’.
3. Increase Size of Local Water Utilities
Industry bodies are recognising the imminent crisis in future skills shortages in the water and sewerage services industry. As stated by the Australian Water Association in its submission to the Inquiry:
“AWA is concerned about a decline in available expertise in the urban water sector generally. More complex water services processes and increased demands on water treatment require increased capital investment and more specialised technical skills.
Amalgamation of water utilities should create bodies of expertise greater than critical mass.”
Larger organisations serve to provide staff with opportunities to move professionally up through the organisation. This can be very attractive to prospective employees, and may serve to reduce the degree of industry ‘churn’ whereby staff move to other organisations to take on roles with more responsibility and higher salary.
Walgett Shire Council identifies in its submission that 'grouping' local water utilities would serve to address challenges faced by the utility by:
allowing a limited (but larger) pool of engineers to be directed to the tasks of greatest need priority;
there would be increased opportunities for on-the-job training and development of staff; and
strategic planning would be undertaken in additional depth and politically motivated distractions would be diminished.
However, some councils, for example Greater Hume Shire Council, believe that diverse roles offered by general purpose councils are attractive to prospective employees:
”There are well documented skilled shortages in the Engineering Field. Traditionally, one of the attractions of rural and remote general purpose councils was the diverse range of duties that could be offered by councils that provide water and sewerage services. Council is extremely concerned that removal of water and sewerage
services from rural councils will make the recruitment and retention of skilled expertise even harder.”
4. Provide Skill Development Opportunities for Local Water Utilities Staff
In its submission to the Inquiry, the Water Industry Operators Association of Australia offers the following suggestions with regards to up-skilling treatment plant operators:
‘Minimum levels of operator qualifications and experience needs to be linked to the risk/sensitivity assessment of the water/sewerage treatment plant. A high risk/high sensitivity plant would require a higher operational skills and experience set than a lower risk/lower sensitivity plant.
A career path with entry from school, university or TAFE needs to be further developed and promoted in conjunction with GSA and the water industry.
Training courses need to be expanded and controlled to ensure that the skills sets identified above can be achieved by entry from multiple levels (e.g. school leavers, water industry employees, university graduates.
Specific training course curricula need to be established.
Competencies need to be specific rather than generic.
A higher level technical specialist strand (possibly within the developing Certificate IV or Diploma level) needs to be developed to provide the higher level skills sets
necessary for the operation of high risk/high sensitivity plants and the provision of specialist technical support within the industry. The stream would also provide a high level technical career path within the operations sector of the water industry. To achieve this, significant funds need to be injected into resource material
development.’
Coffs Harbour City Council recommends the establishment of ‘mentor’ councils to assist others with skills development and strategic guidance.
Not only do skills need to be developed, but they need to be maintained. The WSAA report on skills shortages states that:
”many regional water utilities have aging infrastructure that is operating within its environmental compliance levels mainly due to the knowledge of the staff that operate them. Knowledge retention, mentoring of new staff and inter-company secondments must be a part of any overall skills management plan.” (2008, p.10).
Several councils have graduate programs in place where students are offered mid-semester work with the council, and in some cases, their university fees paid for by the council. Some councils reported at Inquiry hearings that despite the incentives offered, some scholarship positions had attracted no candidates.
5. Outsource Skills Needs to the Private Sector
One way in which local water utilities draw on skills that they may not have in-house is to contract out certain elements of the utilities functions. This may be under a contractual arrangement for specific functions, or through a Public-Private Partnership.
Some local water utilities in NSW have entered into Public-Private Partnerships with private water and sewerage service providers. Gloucester Shire Council states that:
”Council has been innovative in its management of practices by tendering out to private enterprise, the provision of day-to-day maintenance of its reticulation systems, a move that is unique in NSW.'
Narrabri Shire has also initiated a partnership with the commercial arm of Hunter Water - Hunter Water Australia:
“Council is in the process of forming a strategic partnership with Hunter Water Australia and JAC Pump Services to supplement Council's management and engineering expertise and guarantee a high quality and cost effective service to its water and waste water customers.”
A notable example of a sewerage public-private partnership is the Tenix Alliance with Bega Valley Shire Council.
In October 2003, Council and Tenix Alliance entered into an alliance-based contract for the Bega Valley Sewerage Program (scheme). The scheme involves upgrading existing sewage treatment plants at Bega, Bermagui, Eden, Merimbula, Tathra and Tura Beach, and new sewerage services for the villages of Candelo, Cobargo, Kalaru, Wallaga Lake and Wolumla.
The contract deed involves fixed fee and alliance components for capital works over 4-plus years, and a 10-year period of sewage treatment plant operations (existing and new) with a 5-year extension at Council's discretion.
While the arrangement is a Public-Private Partnership, no private sector funding is involved, - the Bega Valley Sewerage Program is funded by Council and the NSW Government through the Country Towns Water Supply and Sewerage Program. Council retains ownership of all existing and new sewerage assets.
Another example of a public-private partnership in NSW is the Wagga Sewer 2010 project which is a Design, Build and Operate scheme. In this case, a private sector entity will become responsible for the design and construction and operation of a number of sewage treatment plants, pipeline and pump station upgrade.
The Department of Water and Energy advises that any council contemplating an alliance-style of contract with the private sector in the NSW water industry needs to be an informed client in terms of scope of work and financial implications, but there can be significant cost and time benefits of such alliances if managed effectively.
6. Increase the Capacity of Training and Industry Development Organisations
This would see the capacity of organisations such as the NSW Water Directorate increased, and their outreach expanded.
A number of submissions and presentations to the Inquiry made mention of the State Government’s public works program, and called for it to be reinstated to provide technical expertise to local water utilities. Midwestern Regional Council commented that:
“Extracting local government engineers to coordinate regional utility services or state managed utilities will no doubt increase the potential to improve management of those utilities, however with the declining number of engineers across Australia;
this will place even more pressure on the delivery of other local government
infrastructure. It is suggested that management of these services remain locally and the Department of Commerce's role be reinvented to model more closely that of the previous Public Works Department, where they provided technical expertise and investigation of systems at subsidised costs. “
CONCLUSION
This chapter has discussed the skills shortages evident in local water utilities as put forward by local water utilities in their submissions to the Inquiry, and a number of studies on the issue that have been conducted.
Current skills shortages have been identified by local water utilities as primarily being in engineering, planning and technical services. Future skills shortages are likely to be for engineers (electrical, mechanical and civil), chemists, microbiologists, tradespeople and plant operators.
Programs designed to train and recruit staff to local water utilities in these critical skill shortage areas are in place in some local water utilities. Submissions to the Inquiry referenced programs such as traineeships, apprenticeships, mentoring programs, and succession planning. In addition to these programs, some local water utilities are seeking skills internationally via skilled migration visa programs. Sub-contracting and private sector designed, owned and operated schemes are also ways in which local water utilities are drawing in external skills from the private sector to manage their water and sewerage services.
However, despite these initiatives, many councils have reported skills shortages in critical areas. The reasons for these shortages are numerous, but primarily:
local water utilities cannot offer remuneration that is competitive with the private sector;
graduates are attracted to organisations in cities and regional centres;
not enough people are graduating (in specific professions such as engineering) to fill the need; and
the mature age profile of the water and sewerage industry, and high level of
the mature age profile of the water and sewerage industry, and high level of