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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4941 ..


reported by the public. Leakage investigations are undertaken of all suspected leaks and repairs undertaken on identification of leaks.

ACTEW also has a hydrant and valves maintenance program. Under this program all valves and hydrants are inspected and checked on a 5 to 8 year cycle.

ACTEW's water meter readers report any leaks identified at water meters.

(2) ACTEW advise the length of water mains in the Canberra water supply system is approximately 2,964km.

(3) ACTEW advise that approximately 50 leaks per 100 kms of main are identified per annum. This includes leaks from mains, maincocks, hydrants, valves, but does not include stopcocks and water services.

(4) ACTEW advise that the estimated total loss in the Canberra system for 2002-03 is 2.96 Gigalitres (GL), with an average daily loss in the order of 8.1 Megalitres (ML) per day. ACTEW's performance in 2002-03 has improved compared to 2000-01, when it had a total loss of 4.3GL.

The Water Services Association, in its WSAA facts publication for 2000﷓01, included a comparative assessment of system losses by urban water utilities in Australia. This is the latest published comparison report. The ACTEW system water loss for the 2000-01 period was 147.1 ML per 100 km main, or 4.3GL in total, which was 6.8% of the total volume supplied.

The 2000-01 level was well below the average rate of loss for utilities of 231.4 ML per 100 km supplied (9.6%), and the third lowest out of 17 water utilities for which data was available.

(5) The ACT Government does not fund water leakage reduction programs. All repairs of water main leaks are undertaken by ACTEW.

ACTEW does not have a separately identified leaks reduction program in 2003-04, however all identified leaks are repaired as part of ongoing maintenance.

ACTEW established a pilot leakage management project in 2000-2001. Under this program, a system for continuous remote monitoring of leakage of 3% of Canberra's reticulation system was established. The operation and monitoring of leakage management districts is funded as part of the water supply operating costs.

ACTEW advises that it is considering a more extensive active leakage control program based on installing approximately 70-80 remotely monitored leakage meters throughout Canberra. This program is planned to be introduced over a 7 year period at an estimated cost in the order of $5M. It is estimated this project will lead to a leakage reduction in the order of 1.0-1.5GL per annum (1.5% to 2.0% of total water supply in the reticulation system) once fully implemented.

(6) ACTEW advises that it aims to repair 100% of all known mains leaks in the ACT within the financial year. Typically leaks are repaired within 7 days of ACTEW being notified unless special investigations are required to pinpoint its location.

(7) ACTEW advise that on the basis that the proposed active leakage control program for 2004-05 is implemented, savings of around 274 kilolitres per day or 100ML per annum


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