Blunders by SA Water caused burst water main that flooded 40 homes at Paradise and Campbelltown
EXCLUSIVE: A damning report has revealed a series of blunders by SA Water when responding to the flooding of houses after a spate of burst water mains last year, which caused millions of dollars in damage.
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A DAMNING report has revealed a series of blunders by SA Water when responding to the flooding of houses after a spate of burst water mains last year which caused millions of dollars in damage.
The flooding of more than 40 properties and vehicles in the northeast suburbs in March last year was caused by a botched maintenance job at a water treatment plant when the wrong pipe valves were activated.
But an internal SA Water report into its response to the catastrophic event in Campbelltown and Paradise revealed a cascade of errors that compounded the suffering of the victims.
The report, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, found that “field crews’’ had trouble shutting down the burst water system because their water pipe maps were “missing’’ crucial details, which caused “difficulty locating and shutting down valves’’.
And despite a flood of calls from householders in Paradise and Campbelltown reporting their homes and cars were underwater due to burst pipes, SA Water call centre operators failed to inform the water utility’s Emergency Management unit.
Because the unit was not activated, emergency SES crews only became aware of the flooding due to media reports.
The report revealed further shortfalls in SA Water’s response.
Customer support staff from the State Government-owned utility also failed to visit the flooded homes until the following day and even then they provided “inaccurate information’’ and failed to interact “appropriately’’ with the flood victims.
The report noted that “SA Water’s Emergency Management’’ was not alerted by call centre staff due to their “lack of awareness and training’’.
A log of 31 customer calls about the crisis included one person who said water, coming via a neighbour’s property, was “flooding our place’’ but was told by the operator that there was “not a great deal I can do as we can’t enter private property’’.
Another distressed caller who said water was “absolutely everywhere’’ was asked by the operator to identify “where it was coming from’’.
Yet another caller was told the flooding was due to blocked “council’’ drains.
Among the more than 40 recommendations, or “actions’’, in the report was to “update’’ the pipe maps.
Another required SA Water to “identify things a customer may need during a major event’’.
There was also a recommendation that “Customer Incident Liaison team to be fully trained to respond and interact with customers’’.
And there was a call to “train Call Centre operators in SA Water Emergency escalation procedures’’.
Adding the SES to the utility’s “Key Stakeholder list’’ was also recommended.
Opposition spokesman David Pisoni said the “disorganisation of dealing with this event is a complete and utter embarrassment for the State Government”
“The fact SA Water’s customer service team were not properly trained to trigger emergency response procedures shows the Government are clearly unprepared for such an incident,” he said.
“When numerous residents are calling for help and comparing the burst water main flows to the River Murray, surely the incident should have been taken seriously enough to call for emergency measures.”
“It is hard to believe that the Water Minister, Ian Hunter, was ignorant of the gravity of the situation which suggests his lack of empathy for the victims was callous.”
Water Minister Ian Hunter said SA Water had been asked to be more responsive to its customers following the Paradise incident.
“Since that time, SA Water has established a dedicated community support team to provide 24/7 support and help to customers during water main incidents,” he said.
‘They had no idea of the impact on peoples’ lives’
AS A victim of the Paradise flooding, Jenny Schiller was all too aware of the poor response by SA Water to the crisis.
“I certainly hope SA Water has learned from this because it was such an appalling experience,’’ said Mrs Schiller, whose house on Willow Drive sustained hundreds of thousands of dollars damage.
“They had no idea of the impact on peoples’ lives — we were dealing with a big bureaucracy which seemed callous.’’
Next door neighbour Diane Vereyken expressed her anger at Water Minister Ian Hunter, who visited her home after the flooding.
“He looked into my house and said to me ‘there’s not much damage here’,’’ said Ms Vereyken, whose home required a new kitchen, flooring and furniture.
“I was shocked (at his comments) because the house was flooded up past the skirting boards.’’