No water restrictions on the horizon for South West Victoria

Chris EdwardsDecember 22, 2024, 9:15 amDecember 17, 2024

Wannon Water has released its Annual Water Outlook for 2025, which confirms that no water restrictions are on the horizon for its customers.

While Bureau of Meteorology climate data shows that some parts of South West Victoria have experienced their driest 12 months on record, the report outlines how Wannon Water is well prepared to meet urban water demand.

Managing Director Andrew Jeffers said the corporation monitored its systems closely to ensure that it could maintain supplies for its 45,000 customers.

“We’re lucky to have such a diverse range of water sources, including surface water catchments and deep geothermal and shallow groundwater aquifers serving our 34 towns and communities,” Jeffers said.

“Even though our supplies are secure, we encourage people to continue to be mindful of their water use because everyone benefits when we use water more efficiently. As our population grows and the demand increases, we must work together to manage and save water.”

The Otway system is the largest of Wannon Water’s systems, supplying water to more than 26,000 customers, including Warrnambool, Koroit, Allansford, Camperdown, Terang, Mortlake, Lismore, Derrinallum, and Simpson. It sources water from rivers and streams in the Otway Ranges, with multiple balancing storages increasing the security of supply. The Warrnambool Roof Water Harvesting System and several bores also supplement the system.

Jeffers said there had been no restrictions for Otway customers since mandatory statewide restrictions were implemented in the early 1980s. The system was still performing well, with a consistent and secure supply at this time. Wannon Water also has an emergency bore near Curdievale, which can be used under drought conditions.

The corporation’s second-largest system in the Grampians has many different supply options, providing high security. This system sources water from streams and bores in the Grampians National Park for the towns of Hamilton, Dunkeld, Tarrington, and Cavendish. The water is transferred and stored in three major reservoirs north of Hamilton before treatment.

The system also includes a pump station that harvests water from Rocklands Reservoir to supply Balmoral. In 2010, following the Millennium Drought, a 52-kilometre-long pipeline linking Rocklands to Hamilton was commissioned, providing additional backup.

“We’ve never actually needed to use the pipeline over the past 14 years, but we’ve maintained it as a drought-proofing measure,” Jeffers said. “As the dry conditions have impacted stream flows in the Grampians catchment, our storage levels in the three reservoirs have dropped over the past 12 months from being close to capacity to now sitting at 69 per cent full.

“We’ve been closely monitoring this system to understand what water resource requirements we’ll need over the summer and into 2025. We expect to bring the pipe online in January, sourcing water from Rocklands to improve our storage levels over the summer.”

Glenthompson customers are supplied separately. Water is harvested from two farmland catchments and stored in the Glenthompson Reservoir. Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water supplements this supply through a pipeline from Willaura.

“We’ve been monitoring the storage levels within the reservoir on a weekly basis since August and have now transferred some additional water from the town’s railway reservoir,” Jeffers said. “This means we should be able to avoid restrictions in the town if the dry conditions continue.”

Wannon Water also has 10 groundwater supply systems that were secure through the Millennium Drought and are expected to remain so. Water restrictions are generally not part of the management of these systems.

Visit Wannon Water’s water-saving page for more information and tips on being waterwise.