A record $182.2 million has been invested by City West Water in infrastructure in the inner and western metropolitan area in the 2012-13 financial year.
The investment, detailed in the City West Water Annual Report tabled in Parliament, show a $37.4 million increase on the previous year, with the West Werribee Dual Water Supply Project and the Arrow Program the standout projects.
The West Werribee project is currently under construction and will provide high quality recycled water to 20,000 homes when complete in 2014. The Arrow Program is a business wide transformation program that will upgrade City West Water’s IT platform and enable the organisation to extract significant efficiencies from its cost of providing services.
Total water purchased for the year was 103.2 billion litres, with average residential consumption per customer remaining relatively low at 157 litres of water per person.
Anne Barker, City West Water Managing Director, said the record investment and continued low average water usage for year is one of many highlights of a successful year for the company.
“It’s fantastic to see this record investment in Melbourne’s west which is bringing some of the largest projects we’ve ever undertaken closer to completion and will deliver long lasting solutions to the region’s water needs”, Ms Barker said.
“Many of these projects represent years of hard work and planning, and I am confident that when they represent sound investments for the City West Water and for the community we service.”
The 2012-13 financial year saw the company achieve a profit before tax of $48.7 million, lower than the $71.7 million recorded in 2011-12 (as a result of the increase in capital expenditure), but well above budget of $27.1 million.
In addition to the two major investment projects, the year also saw the completion of the Brimbank Alternative Water Supply project as well as a number of smaller scale upgrades to the water supply sewerage system networks.
Ms Barker said 2012-13 saw the company outperform many operational targets during the year, particularly in relation to restoration of supply, and zero customers experiencing more than five unplanned interruptions to their water supply despite the dry weather over summer.
“The hot, dry summer and heavy rainfall events during the year put increased pressure on the network, but we were able to outperform many of our performance targets which is a great result.
Ms Barker said that the company retained all of its ISO accreditations for the year.
“Importantly, we retained all current accreditations and certifications including ISO 9001:2000 (Quality), ISO14001 (Environmental Management), ISO 4801:2001 (OH&S) and HACCP (Water Quality).