Recycled water costing three Adelaide councils more than purified SA tap water
A scheme intended to provide three Adelaide councils with cheap water for parks and gardens now costs more than purified drinking water.
East, Inner Suburbs & Hills
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A ratepayer-funded $23m water recycling scheme is performing so badly it cannot supply groundwater for council-owned parks and gardens for the same price as SA Water’s drinking tap water.
In a forward planning document for 2021-2030, ERA Water has warned its member councils – Norwood, Payneham & St Peters, Burnside and Walkerville – it would not be able to match SA Water prices for the next 10 years.
That is despite the quality of its water being suitable for outdoor use only. When established in 2015, it was estimated the water would cost 80 per cent of the SA Water price.
The company each year supplies the three councils with the equivalent of 200 Olympic swimming pools of recycled water for their parks and gardens.
The ERA report said SA Water’s 18.5 per cent price cuts in recent years has had a “catastrophic impact” on the viability of the scheme.
Burnside Mayor Anne Monceaux, who questioned the economic potential of the scheme when it was first devised more than 10 years ago, said the pricing of the scheme was “worrying”.
“It is very costly,” Mrs Monceaux said.
“The scheme needs a lot more attention and the problem is the increasing costs, because the financial demand on council budgets continues to grow and that is a worry.”
The ERA Water report stated: “Since 2018, the scheme has been hampered by dry climatic conditions, operating and capital cost overruns and lower than expected water injection and sales.”
“The combination of these factors has meant that the financial performance of ERA Water has been significantly below original expectations.
“Unfortunately, the recent performance of the scheme has been poor and it is now highly unlikely that ERA Water will be able to trade within its existing debt cap nor be in a position to meet its financial objective of providing constituent councils with water below the SA Water price.”
The long-term plan also showed the current debt limit of $15.3m was forecast to $16m. But a spokesman for Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council said criticism needed to be balanced with the benefits ERA Water provided the environment.
“From day one, the council has always understood this is a long-term project and in the early years would not provide a profit while it brought customers online,” the spokesman said.
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