Council praised for its management of water and sewerage

Wyong Shire Council’s performance in the management of its water and sewerage assets has been officially recognised by the State Government.

The NSW Department of Water and Energy (DWE) advised Council it achieved full compliance with Best Practice Management Guideline criteria for both water supply and sewerage during the last performance report for 2005/6.

Such a favourable and positive report follows on from the previous two financial years, when the same report ranked Council among the top 10 performers in the State when it comes to overall performance of its water supply and sewerage operations.

Council was a top 10 performer in the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 reports, but was subsequently advised that ranking reviews by the State Government were to be discontinued effective 2005/6.

The DWE typically takes 12 months to compile data and prepare and distribute the annual performance reports, hence the reason that the 2005/6 report was only able to be put forward at the final Council meeting of 2007.

The 2005/6 report noted Council continues to comply with National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines for drinking water quality and the Environment Protection Authority licence conditions for treated effluent.

The report also listed a number of areas where Council’s high level of performance in water and sewerage management was demonstrated including the following areas:

• water losses including leakage
• operating costs per property
• occurrence of public health incidents
• compliance with effluent discharge licence
• occurrence of environmental incidents
• average annual residential water consumption
• number of main breaks
• physical, chemical and microbiological water quality compliance

Wyong Mayor Warren Welham said the report highlighted the fact Council is doing a good job managing its water and sewerage.

“Obviously there’s a lot of debate going on at the moment in terms of the future control of Council’s water and sewerage assets,’’ Mayor Welham said.

“But what this report shows is that, for a number of years and particularly in recent times, Council has been highly praised for our management of water and sewerage assets.

“This, more than anything, highlights just why we should be able to keep control of these assets and manage them to continue providing the high level of service our community has become accustomed do.’’

Wyong Shire Council’s General Manager Kerry Yates said: “The NSW Government cannot justify the need for a new corporatised system on efficiency grounds when it has publicly recognised Wyong’s high standards and quality service over recent years.’’

Media contact:
Cameron Bell
4350 1667

Page last updated: 15/01/2008