Sydney Water pipe leaks lose 115 million litres of water every day
SYDNEY is bleeding 46 Olympic swimming pools of water every day — the equivalent of almost $230,000 worth to consumers — through leaks in the city’s ageing pipes while the rest of the state languishes in the worst drought in living memory. CRACKING UP: Here are Sydney’s worst suburbs for leaks.
NSW
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SYDNEY is bleeding 46 Olympic swimming pools of water every day — the equivalent of almost $230,000 worth to consumers — through leaks in the city’s ageing pipes while the rest of the state languishes in the worst drought in living memory.
Just a week after NSW was declared as 100 per cent drought-affected, The Daily Telegraph can reveal a 15 per cent jump in water lost through leaks in Sydney Water’s network since 2014.
According to the water utility the hot and dry weather across Greater Sydney has caused “pipe expansion and joint movement”, resulting in a higher than usual rate of mains leaks and breaks.
The leaks, which yesterday alone popped in up suburbs from Kellyville to Elanora Heights and Cronulla, add up to 114 million litres every single day, or about $228,000 worth of water based on the average cost of a litre of water from a household bill.
Many residents are also complaining it takes weeks — and in some cases months — for Sydney Water to come and fix the leaks.
Kellyville local Mike Biegelmann said he couldn’t believe it would take more than four weeks to fix a simple break leaking water on to Samantha Riley Drive in his suburb in the middle of the drought crippling the state.
“If water is such a precious resource why have we had thousands of litres flowing down our drain due to a leak on Samantha Riley Drive for over a month now?” he said.
“It’s just such a waste with the drought, thousands of litres flowing down the drain.
“I’m not a plumber, but they didn’t seem to think it was a big deal to get it fixed until yesterday.”
Meanwhile in Leichhardt a leaking pipe on Flood Street gushed water for 50 days, with local residents estimating it ran out at a rate of three litres of water per minute.
In Redfern, water has been gushing from a cracked pipe at the corner of Bourke Street and Boronia Lane for almost three weeks. Sydney Water said the leak was first reported on July 25 and the utility was still negotiating with City of Sydney council on how to repair it without damaging a tree in the area.
“It’s just wasting water for nothing, and it’s clean water which is the worst part,” said Fanny Vachet, 32, who lives nearby and has had to divert baby son Max in his pram into a bike lane to get around the overflow.
Opposition water spokesman Chris Minns said an unprecedented “cash raid” on Sydney Water by the NSW State Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was hampering the utility’s maintenance capabilities.
Mr Minns said while the usual after tax dividend which Sydney Water paid to the State Government was about 70 per cent, the 2019-20 divided would be a whopping $810 million — or 183 per cent of its after-tax profit.
That would follow a $546 million dividend for 2017/18.
“They have been treating Sydney Water like an ATM and now in times of drought the infrastructure budget can’t keep up with failures in the system,” Mr Minns said.
“It’s no coincidence that at the same time that the Government is ripping an extra half billion out of Sydney Water leaks are literally springing up all over the network.
“When the dams were full the Government felt it could ignore our leaks and breaks but now that precious liquid is being completely wasted.”
A spokeswoman for Water Minister Don Harwin said the dividends had “no impact on their customer’s bills, service levels or investment in their network”.
“Sydney Water performs well against world standards for leaks and breaks,” she said.
“Sydney Water has reduced the level of breaks and leaks across its network over the period of 2002-03 to 2016-17.
“Periods of prolonged hot and dry weather such as Greater Sydney has experienced recently, are known to cause pipe expansion and joint movement, resulting in increased water main leaks and breaks.”
Grazier Kat McBride, along with husband Rob manages a massive sheep run on half a million acres in the state’s far west near Broken Hill, said she could not believe the amount of water being wasted in Sydney. “Water is so precious, I hate to see it wasted,” she said. “If we get a leak we go out and fix it straight away.”
Gunnedah Mayor Jamie Chaffey said his region had been very hard hit by the drought, so when the council built a new swimming pool — and had to fill it with 2.2 million litres of non-potable water to test for leaks — it offered it free to local farmers, gardeners rather than see it go to waste.
“There is no doubt water is critical for our livelihoods and we are focused on saving every bit of water, it is used in a responsible way,” Mr Chaffey said.
“The drought has been very tough. Sydneysiders who want to help us out — come and spend some time in the country, visit us, eat at our restaurants, come and have a look around.”