Water Meter FAQ

In October 2000, Council resolved to install raw water meters across the Shire in readiness for a 'user pays' water charging policy.

A similar policy and meters are already in place for the Shire's filtered water supply.

The move towards raw water meters is in line with State Government policy and will also satisfy a requirement of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources (DIPNR) that Council has a 'user pays' water charges policy in place for the 2004/2005 financial year.

At this stage the installation of the meters is progressing well, with set-up complete in Pooncarie, Wentworth and Dareton.

Raw water meters in Buronga and Gol Gol are being installed now (March/April 2004).

It is unfortunate that along with the installation of meters has come a lot of misinformation about the installation process itself and how water will be billed in the future.

The purpose of this website page is to dispel some of the myths that have arisen since the installation of meters began about 18 months ago.

Meter installation should be complete by the end of May this year, allowing Council to include a user pays water policy in its 2004/2005 budget deliberations.

Claim: The installation of the meter decreases water pressure.

When the meters are being installed volumes and pressures are checked. If a problem is found it is reported by the contracted installers in their weekly report to the Shire and then investigated by Council's own plumbing staff.

To date there has been quite a bit of work done to clear blocked ferrules to increase volume and pressure. This is not a consequence of the meter installation, but the work has highlighted any shortcomings in pressure.

Some tap-ins were found to be almost completely blocked and consumers were not aware of the problem until the service was cut to accommodate the new raw water meter.

Claim: Council is already reading meters and charging residents

Untrue. To gauge the likely raw water consumption, a random selection of meters throughout the Shire are being read. The results are shown in the table below.

Note that some of the figures in the table show huge disparities between like-sized properties and alarming consumption trends for others.

As the figures indicate, consumption varies wildly from site to site and Council will be taking this into account when it determines a water charging policy.

Claim: The meter has a filter that blocks up all the time.

Council has received complaints from a small number of consumers in regard to blockages and the need for regular cleaning of the in-line filter placed before the meter.

Most of those complaints come from high volume users of water causing the primary filter to block as it attempts to cope with huge quantities of water in a short period of time.

More moderate users are not experiencing blockage problems to anywhere near the same degree and many have mastered the simple cleaning procedure that Council staffers are more then willing to demonstrate. In the case of the elderly, frail or infirm, Council has promised to clean the filters on request.

In must be remembered that to operate a dual water supply successfully, there are two grades of water. One is filtered, used for internal use only, and the other unfiltered or raw water. That is chlorinated river water for use on gardens and external areas only.

The condition of the river can change significantly, a factor over which Council has no control. At times consumers may be supplied low quality raw water carrying more than usual debris that will require more regular cleaning of the filter.

Claim: Removing the filter will increase pressure and flow volumes.

No it won't. The filter is a high flow variety and is in place to protect the meter mechanism itself. Removing the filter may result in damage to the meter that will subsequently have to be replaced at the ratepayer's expense (about $80).

Claim: There is no need for meters in the Shire.

Again untrue. Meters are a Government requirement that the municipality is obligated to meet. Council is required to have all water services metered and have a user pays policy in place from 2004/2005 onwards.

Council staff have been working towards this goal for the past two years and the DIPNR has offered to provide a staff member to assist Council with the preparation of the new water policy.

Claim: Water will cost more once it is metered.

A user pay system is just that. The more water you use the more you will pay, so there is an incentive for residents to become much wiser about their water use.

It is hard to estimate just how the progression to the user pays system will impact on individual households because Council is yet to set a charging regime.

Charges are expected to be an important component of this year's budget deliberations.

However, if you compare the Shire's present allocation (which is not expected to change significantly) with that offered by Lower Murray Water in Mildura, it compares very favourably.

LMW offers only filtered water and figures show the average household consumption is 670kL annually for both internal and external use.

The present Shire allocation is 250kL of filtered water and 900kL of raw water, for a total of 1150kL or nearly twice the average use in Mildura.