Water main burst

By Kath Gannaway
A HEALESVILLE resident has accused Yarra Valley Water of being ‘water wallies’ after waiting for about two hours for a broken water main on her street to be turned off.
Susan Fisher of St Leonards Road said the burst pipe was reported just before 6am last Thursday by a neighbour and that she placed a followup call 10 minutes later to check that someone was on their way.
“It was just a gurgle when we first saw it but there was still a lot of water coming out,” she said.
“Then we heard a bang about 6am and it had just erupted and was shooting into the air and onto my house and garden.”
Ms Fisher claimed her concerns that the matter had not been treated as a priority were confirmed when she rang again at 7.10am and was told that the matter had not been put on the emergency list.
“When you ring and say something’s an emergency, you expect more of a response than what I got,” she said.
“I was told it had already been reported and that they (Yarra Valley Water) don’t just have a crew around the corner.”
Yarra Valley Water defended its response time, saying it received the first report at 5.30am and immediately contacted an assessor.
Yarra Valley Water’s general manager of asset services, Sam Austin, said a representative arrived at the site at 6.45am to assess the problem and to determine what equipment would be needed to address it.
A crew arrived at 8am and the water was turned off by 8.10am, he said.
“We aim to respond to these calls within two hours and commence work within three hours,” Mr Austin said.
“We actually achieve this in 95 per cent of cases.
“We arrived at St Leonards Road within an hour and 15 minutes of the first call and work was under way within twoandahalf hours.”
But Ms Fisher said she was not convinced.
“They run ads on television telling us how precious water is and to conserve it, then they’re saying it’s acceptable that nothing happens for more than two hours while all that water, possibly millions of litres, just goes straight down the drain,” she said.
“I was told their maintenance comes from Mitcham and the person who actually turned it off came from Lysterfield.
“You have to wonder why they closed the depot in Healesville if they have such a big area to service.
“Why isn’t there somebody in Healesville or even Lilydale who can turn off a main when something like this happens?”