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State Government report puts the ‘oughta’ into water
Victoria’s-best for sewerage, with improvements due in water supply and work underway on water quality ... that’s Westernport Water’s scorecard in a newly released State Government report.
Westernport Water has again proven itself the best-performer statewide for wastewater disposal with Victoria’s lowest rate of sewer blockages - 6.8 per 100km of sewer main. The state average is 31.5.However, major improvement projects to water supply and the lingering effects of the drought meant increased complaints and structural hiccoughs in 2007/08, according to the annual Essential Service Commission (ESC) report.
Managing Director Murray Jackson said: “Our water charges are not the state’s highest, but high enough to warrant changing our billing system. We’ve changed to a tiered system that means low-water users pay less.”
Meanwhile, the ESC report shows that Westernport Water customers recorded the state’s lowest average household consumption, 71kL, although this was due to the area’s “large seasonal population”, the ESC noted.
“Westernport Water commented that average household consumption is heavily influenced by the fact that 62 per cent of the business’s customer base is non-permanent households,” the report noted. “Average consumption in a permanent household was 200kL per annum compared to 22kL per annum in a non-permanent household.”
The average Westernport Water bill was $718, compared with South Gippsland Water’s $740.
Westernport Water explained that, despite having the lowest average household consumption, its infrastructure must meet peak demand during holiday periods and major events, resulting in greater fixed access charges.
Westernport Water paid the highest average value of hardship grants to customers having difficulties paying their bills.
The water corporation also had the highest proportion of domestic restrictions for non-payment of water bills, with 1.13 per 100 customers. The restrictions remain for longer than those of other corporations and Westernport Water Managing Director Murray Jackson said this could be due to the high proportion of non-permanent customers.
Westernport Water had the highest number of complaints per 100 customers with 1.73 complaints, followed by Central Highlands Water (1.64 complaints) and South Gippsland Water (1.51 complaints).
“We don’t necessarily think this is a bad result; it shows our customers feel they can pick up the phone and talk to us.” Mr Jackson said. “We want to know when they’re not happy.”
Of those businesses with an emergency fault line, Westernport Water recorded the second-fastest in the state - 11 seconds.
However, Westernport Water had the state’s highest number of planned interruptions (0.49 per customer), mainly due to two projects, a night shutdown to replace valves and an air scour to clean a major pipe.
It also had the slowest average restoration time. “We had major pipework to install and a whole-system air scour program,” said Mr Jackson. “The scale of the projects required interruption to supply, and we again thank customers for their patience.”
A characteristic of the local water supply is a wide variation of demand – which can rocket from 16,000 to 60,000 consumers during peak tourist times. “Few water supply systems in Victoria – even in Australia – would be subject to such a rapid upsurge,” Mr Jackson said.
“For the third consecutive year we had Victoria’s highest number of unplanned interruptions. However it’s worth noting that the average response time to these unplanned interruptions is around 100 minutes. That’s about midway in the statewide comparison and much lower than the nearly-160 minutes we recorded in 2005/06.”
And, when it came to restoring supply after unplanned interruptions, Westernport Water was the second-fastest in the state, with 96 per cent restored in three hours.
The ESC results show that improvement projects are starting to take effect. The number of pipe breaks across the Westernport Water network in 2007/08 was the lowest since 2004/05. And Westernport Water recorded the state’s second-lowest level of water leaks.
The period of the ESC report saw water levels in Candowie Reservoir at historically low levels, which affected water quality. Despite this, Westernport Water again met 100% of health safety standards for e- coli. And levels of disinfection by-products are already being addressed, Mr Jackson said.
“This measure does not affect public health, rather underlines the fact that our system historically has had to treat poor-quality raw water drawn from high-intensity farmland.
“Our customers were the state’s most-vocal; we received the highest number of complaints about water quality, but flushing and air scouring pipes has improved quality and colour.
“We are confident that the water quality improvements we are undertaking will show up in the next year’s results.”
Westernport Water’s recycling track record sits mid-way in the statewide table. “But that’s misleading,” said Mr Jackson. “All the big recyclers are large, agricultural-based regions and most of the recycled water in Victoria is used on agricultural land.
“Westernport Water services Melbourne’s peri-urban fringe. We have less ability to apply large amount of recycled water to broadacre farming. So our recycling record is actually better than it looks.”
Also, Westernport Water recorded the state’s second-lowest level of CO2 emissions, despite the level of capital projects undertaken in the year.