Great Tasting Water: Building a case for a great tasting water solution
At a glance
Great Tasting Water provided an industry-leading example of how innovative thinking about the intersection between water services and public health can open new opportunities to enhance the lives of customers and communities.
Mission
To build a business case that provides a solution to support and enhance public health and regional prosperity to the communities of Portland, Port Fairy and Heywood, while highlighting a strategic justification for investment.
The challenge
Wannon Water supplies drinking water to 33 towns across South-West Victoria. Due to elevated levels of naturally occurring mineral salts present from the groundwater from which it drawn, the communities of Portland, Port Fairy and Heywood experience a range of negative impacts including:
- Low levels of tap water consumption and substitution with sugar-sweetened beverages resulting in poor community health outcomes
- Additional household costs related to purchase of tap water alternatives and reduced life of home assets
- Additional costs for industry and local businesses (including lost or increased opportunity costs).
In 2017, Wannon Water committed to investigate improvement of the drinking water quality for its customers. This included a commitment to consult with communities and, in partnership, develop investment plans to consider both economic and social impacts, and to scope and design infrastructure solutions.
The Great Tasting Water project needed to address the issues surrounding water aesthetics and review different water treatment options suitable to address the need for change.
Our response
The primary activity to deliver these commitments has been the Great Tasting Water program - a comprehensive business case investigation developed between 2018 and 2021 in association with GHD, Deakin University Global Obesity Centre and Jaguar Consulting.
The Great Tasting Water business case reviewed options available to address the negative outcomes of current water aesthetics without putting further strain on affordability for customers. This included preliminary design, identification of a preferred strategic option, determining project viability and feasibility, and quantifying the costs and benefits that could be expected from implementation.
With GHD’s expertise, the project work undertaken proposed upgrades to the existing groundwater treatment facilities, providing capacity to reduce salinity and produce a consistently high-quality water that will realise the community benefits of having great tasting water. This enables Wannon Water to better utilise the Dilwyn Aquifer, an essentially climate-independent resource, to service its customers in a sustainable, equitable and cost-efficient way.
“GHD brought real innovation to the project, which helped lead us to a world-leading outcome which will benefit not only our own communities, but also remote and indigenous communities across Australia”. – Ian Bail, Wannon Water
The impact
Through the Great Tasting Water program, Wannon Water and GHD developed a business case to realise public health, economic and environmental benefits based on new insight into the impact of aesthetic water quality parameters.
A range of key benefits have been identified that will improve health outcomes of the community, improve equity for communities and customers, and lower costs for both local industry and local communities.
- Improved public health through reduced obesity and related disease burden.
- Improved dental health.
- Reduced hospitalisations and corresponding local productivity gains.
- Cost savings to significant international trade-exposed industries (plus reduced barriers to new industry).
- Community cost savings, primarily from improved household asset lifecycles and reduced bottled water purchase costs.
The business case brought together research, community feedback and analysis, and a positive case for change has been found for implementing Great Tasting Water across all three towns, with total benefits in excess of $47M.
Based on the novel business case approach, Wannon Water has committed to implement the program, with funding of $15.7M included in its 2023-2028 capital works program. The Federal Government also announced in its 2023 budget a funding commitment of $26.1 million from the National Water Grid Fund to support Wannon Water to improve water quality and service for Portland, Heywood and Port Fairy.
The Great Tasting Water project was a finalist in the 2023 AWA Victoria awards, with GHD as a project contributor.