SA Water dispute leaves Freeling’s $25m Wheatfields aged-care upgrade ‘in limbo’

Aged-care residents could be forced out of their homes as SA Water fights with an engineering firm over the size of pipes.

Former Light Council mayor and current Wheatfields resident Des Shanahan with CEO Pam Charnock at the almost completed centre. Picture: Brett Hartwig

A $25m aged-care upgrade is in disarray amid a stoush between SA Water and an engineering firm, leaving vulnerable seniors at risk of being forced to find a new home.

Wheatfields Residential Care in Freeling, north of Adelaide, was due in April to move residents into a second building with 32 new beds, but the plan has fallen apart after SA Water said this year it couldn’t connect the federally-funded building’s fire sprinklers to mains water.

Wheatfields chief executive Pam Charnock said without a better solution, some residents would need to move into the state’s already stretched public aged-care system while Wheatfields built a water tank at its main building as another water supply.

Former Light Council mayor and current Wheatfields resident Des Shanahan with CEO Pam Charnock at the almost completed centre. Picture: Brett Hartwig

An SA Water spokesman has blamed the mess on Bestec, a major engineering firm hired to carry out the upgrade, alleging its design jeopardised the local water network.

“The firm did not undertake the required water network analysis prior to the design and construction of Wheatfields’ redeveloped aged-care facility,” a spokesman said.

“As a result, the current design jeopardises the integrity of our local water network and the safety of future residents at the facility.”

Bestec strongly rejected the claim Bestec’s design would jeopardise the town’s water supply during a fire, saying the timing of the network analysis was not the core issue in dispute.

A spokesperson said a flow-and-pressure test by SA Water found abundant water on the street opposite Wheatfields, where the infrastructure is identical.

“How is the network capable of supporting firefighting activity on one side of the street, but is not capable of supporting it on the other side?” they said.

Ms Charnock said moving residents was the “worst-case scenario” as Wheatfields pursued other options, such as building a water tank at a nearby carpark, but this may not be allowed by the local council.

“We’re in limbo,” she said. “We don’t know what to do. Where do I put my residents?”

She said Wheatfields’ planned second and third stages of the project, to upgrade its main site while residents moved into the second building, was also forced into limbo.

The project’s changes could leave Wheatfields $1m out of pocket.

Ms Charnock said she met with an adviser from the office of Housing Minister Nick Champion, who said the government could not overrule SA Water’s policies.

Liberal member for Frome, Penny Pratt, has helped Wheatfields with the issue.

“There’s so much at stake for good people,” she said. “The government have to come to the table and help come up with a solution.”

“It is the human impact that is looming for families who thought that they’d found a fantastic location in Wheatfields, and we need this project to be delivered in full.”

Originally published as SA Water dispute leaves Freeling’s $25m Wheatfields aged-care upgrade ‘in limbo’