Riverina Water manages a water infrastructure network providing drinking water to more than 76,000 people across 15,000 square kilometres. Due to increased regulatory requirements and growing local community needs, NSW Public Works was engaged to develop an integrated water cycle management (IWCM) strategy to enable effective management of the network’s current and future water needs.

NSW Public Works has been a trusted technical partner of Riverina Water for more than 10 years.

“With a strong knowledge and understanding of Riverina Water’s supply networks, NSW Public Works was an obvious choice to prepare the long-term strategic plan for Riverina Water,” said NSW Public Works Director Water Resources Management, Glenn Fernandes. “Our team of expert water utility planning engineers undertook demand and network modelling, developed solutions, managed regulatory requirements, and stakeholder and community engagement to prepare the 30-year total asset management plan.”

The IWCM plan, finalised in February 2021, enables Riverina Water to cater for growth in water demand and continue to provide a safe, secure and reliable water supply for the Riverina region. Under the plan, drought resilience has been improved with rural schemes interconnected for multiple levels of redundancy. Planning for future resilience also included increased storage and pumping capacity, as well as securing 1300 ML of additional high security water licence.

The IWCM strategy addressed future issues and opportunities facing growth in regional NSW, including management of contamination of groundwater, implementation of $22 million in solar power generation and upgrading of the telemetry system to a digital radio network over a 15,500 square kilometre operating area.

This high-profile project, along with other works completed by Riverina Water, earned them recognition at the 2021-22 Local Government NSW water conference in Narrabri, where received the prestigious Sam Samra Award, recognising the most improved local water utility within NSW.

This article is part of the 2021-22 Year in Review

Image source: Destination NSW