Why join WQRA

An Investment in Water Quality

Membership of WQRA is open to Australian water utilities, research organisations, private sector companies, consultants, state and territory government departments and water resources managers. The resources required by WQRA are provided in the form of cash funding and in-kind contributions of facilities and time. There are three categories of WQRA Membership:

• General Members
• Industry Members
• Research Members

General and industry members pay annual membership fees to support the existence of WQRA and investment in activities to support the water industry. Industry members are classified into three bands according to their size, with corresponding differences in the level of financial contribution and voting rights for determination of research priorities. Research members are not expected to contribute cash, but are required to provide agreed amounts of in-kind support through the use of facilities, and the time of staff administering, supervising and undertaking research.

Staff at WQRA member organisations can access member-only resources on the WQRA website, lead and submit projects to WQRA for funding consideration, participate on committees, and attend WQRA member meetings, workshops and events.

Benefits of WQRA Membership

WQRA aims to deliver significant benefits to the water industry, the research community and regulatory bodies through:

Elevated levels of customer trust
An increased knowledge base will allow clearer and more definitive communication with customers and a steady improvement in public trust of water supply authorities.

Reduced risk of water quality incidents
An improved understanding and quantification of the health and environmental risks associated with water supply and water reuse that will result in improved risk management. As a result, the likelihood of water quality incidents will be greatly reduced and

More appropriate regulations
An improved understanding of risks and system operating characteristics will assist in the continued development of appropriate, evidenced-based guidelines, regulations and policy. As a direct consequence, optimal capital investment decisions can be made, which target investment into areas of highest risk and avoid unnecessary expenditure on low-risk areas.

Improved infrastructure design and operations
Better knowledge and understanding of processes in the integrated water management cycle will allow development of a range of system management tools. Application of these tools will lead to a reduction in direct operating costs, while maintaining a high quality risk management framework.

Enhanced water industry skills
Supporting the education and training of water professionals in research will help build capability and address the industry skills shortage by building a pool of talented young researchers who will contribute to the Australian water community both now and into the future.

Augmented research capacity
Support for capacity building in the Australian research community will enable research groups to establish and maintain a critical mass for water quality and public health research and education and sustain a current body of knowledge in these critical areas.

Stronger collaboration between industry, researchers, regulators, peak bodies and associations
WQRA’s membership offers a vehicle for providing interaction and collaboration between industry, researchers and regulators. This ensures that R&D is targeted and supported from conception to inception and can be translated from research outputs into industry practices and deliver cost savings and tangible benefits to the
industry.

Early adoption of research outcomes by industry members
Through enhanced communication and linkages between research and industry, industry members will be able to more rapidly become aware of, and adopt, research outcomes.

For more information about membership, please contact Jodieann Dawe, CEO. You can also view a membership brochure, here.