Water Corp Faces Challenge Maintaining 54,000km of Pipes Amid Leak Complaints

For two years, residents in the dry wheatbelt region of Western Australia have watched a Water Corp water tank leak thousands of liters of water daily into the ground. Linda Rose, who lives near Southern Cross, described the situation as "frustrating," noting that the rusty tank, supplied by the Goldfields water pipeline, is losing an "Olympic-sized swimming pool" of water each day.

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It's just so frustrating. This tank wouldn't even be over 100,000 litres. There are Olympic-sized swimming pools of water being lost daily. It's phenomenal.

Neighbors have reported the leaks to the Water Corp, but Ms. Rose said locals were told that repairs could not be made for fear of the tank rupturing and due to insufficient budget. "The locals have actually seen the Water Corporation checking on the tank," she said, adding that officials claimed they "can't actually do anything just in case the tank ruptures, and there's not enough money in the budget to fix the tank."

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I can absolutely understand people's frustration. I know it's not what our customers expect of us, particularly as we're asking them to partner with us in being water wise.

Water Corp chief executive Pat Donovan viewed a video of the leak and acknowledged the public's frustration. He stated that while a slight leak was reported a couple of years ago, it had only recently become significantly worse, particularly in May. "We've been working since then to find a suitably qualified contractor with availability to do the work," Mr. Donovan said, confirming that a contractor had been secured late last week and work would commence this week.

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I'm told that as part of our routine monitoring there was a report of a slight leak a couple of years ago, and that was then identified as having become worse in late March of this year, and then significantly worse in May.

Mr. Donovan explained that the vastness of the Water Corp's infrastructure, comprising approximately 54,000 kilometers of largely buried pipes – enough to circle the equator one and a quarter times – makes immediate repairs to every leak impossible. The corporation receives numerous public reports and conducts its own leak detection surveys. Repairs are prioritized based on public safety, impact on customer supply, and then the potential for water loss.

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We've been working since then to find a suitably qualified contractor with availability to do the work. We managed to secure one late last week. Our teams went out to site with them and they'll be kicking off that work this week, hopefully.