National report card confirms improved water efficiency and leakage reduction
Hunter Water has thanked the Lower Hunter community for its continued water savings, following the release of the latest water utility report card.
The Commonwealth Government’s National Performance Report compares 86 water utilities against 166 performance indicators.
The report confirms that Lower Hunter households have made significant improvements to conserve water, with the average daily water consumption falling by 17 per cent over four years.
“We have supplied three per cent less water to residential homes in our region compared with the previous financial year, showing that our community continues to embrace Love Water and use less,” said Hunter Water Managing Director, Darren Cleary.
“This is a great result and we commend our community for their sustained effort.”
Water savings have also translated into lower bills for Hunter Water customers, with the average annual household bill falling by $90, to $1,090 per year.
In other positive results, Hunter Water’s network leakage has also dropped to 64 litres per service connection per day. This is a continued improvement, with leakage reducing by almost 40 per cent since 2016.
For the first time, Hunter Water’s Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) has fallen below 1.0, achieving a score of 0.93. A score of 1.0 or below is considered to be “world class”.
Customer affordability remains a focus, with the report ranking Hunter Water the third lowest for water and wastewater operating costs per property in the country, while we have also recorded the largest decrease of any major utility for customer complaints.
“The National Performance Report confirms that we continue to be one of the nation’s top performing water utilities,” said Mr Cleary.
"Pleasingly, our community has shown they continue to Love Water and have adopted smart water choices into their everyday habits, which all helps to keep our water storages fuller for longer."
“A focus area for us has been in the way we manage our network and respond to leaks and breaks. Our proactive approach to monitoring more than 5,000 kilometres of pipes and our investment in new technologies has helped us make significant savings, and we’re committed to making sure leakage reduction remains a top priority.”
The full report is available by visiting, http://www.bom.gov.au/water/npr/