Central Highlands Water outlines plans to secure the immediate future of the Ballarat & District Water Supply System

The Chief Executive Officer of Central Highlands Water, Mr Neil Brennan, today released the following statement regarding the future plans for the Ballarat and District Water Supply System:

It's the most talked about topic in town. How long are the water storages going to last and what is the plan until the Ballarat Link of the Goldfields Superpipe is introduced mid next year?
Well it’s true - if we get a repeat of last year's record low rainfall and we do nothing our storages will be empty by early next year.

Clearly then, doing nothing – and hoping for rainfall – is not an option.
That's why we're implementing the following plan to ensure sufficient water for the community until the Superpipe is completed – now planned for June next year, two years ahead of the original schedule.

This plan requires a commitment from both Central Highlands Water and the community to work in partnership in two key areas:

1. Increase supply by introducing new water resources

Central Highlands Water is investing about $15 million on your behalf to introduce an additional 5,000ML of water to the system this year through a number of new water supply projects such as Ballarat West Groundwater, Newlyn Reservoir connection, Bungaree Groundwater and several others, and

2. Reduce demand by further cutting water consumption by 15%

We call on every business, home and school to go beyond Stage 4 restrictions and take up the challenge of cutting water consumption by 15% – this will effectively add an additional 1500ML of water to the system. Currently, under Stage 4, each of us is using about 180 litres a day. That’s about 18 buckets per person every day. We need to reduce our daily water use by three buckets, or down to 150 litres per day per person.

These two actions will extend our water resources until the Superpipe is operating. Any rainfall and run-off into our catchments will be a bonus.

To help the community meet these targets Central Highlands Water will be reading your water meter each month, providing you with a monthly water-usage chart and a new water-saving action so you can follow your water-savings progress and play your part. Small savings across the 45,000 connected properties in the system quickly add up to large water volume. We'll be encouraging you to tell your success stories and share in some great rewards along the way.

In the coming months Central Highlands Water will continue to monitor the consumption of water and the state of Ballarat's storages. While there is higher confidence of obtaining decent rainfall this Winter and Spring, should low inflows be recorded again this year AND the water conservation programs do not deliver the desired result, we will need to consider harsher water restrictions. The benefit of requesting customers to extend their terrific water saving efforts now is to avert the necessity to enforce more severe restrictions such as system-wide pressure reductions and/or water rationing measures in the future

We don’t want to reach that stage and, fortunately, as a community, we have time on our side.
Central Highlands Water is conscious of the potential impacts of higher water prices and will implement additional measures to alleviate any impacts on vulnerable customers. However, the $180 million price tag for the Goldfields Superpipe, $15 million on short-term augmentations and an existing extensive capital works program including the $30 million upgrade of Ballarat North Wastewater Plant, tariffs will be increasing. The alternative is for Ballarat to run out of water, an outcome that is simply unacceptable and which would have even more significant economic impact on our region. We are currently preparing the next Water Plan to submit to the Essential Services Commission, detailing the cost of our future plans. We encourage you to look at the 2008 Water Plan when it becomes available mid-year.
I am confident that by working in partnership with our community that the above plan will ensure our long term water resources remain sustainable.

Read Ballarat & District Water Supply System... Our Future Plans - April 2007