Gippsland collaborate for the good of customer and community
Gippsland Water (GW) have commenced trading groundwater entitlements in an innovative and collaborative move that will benefit customers and the community they serve.
Similar to a number of the presentation from the Intelligent Water Networks’ (IWN) Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing Conference about collaborating with their community, Gippsland Water has advertised groundwater available for trade in the Sale, Giffard and Moe groundwater licence zones.
GW initially advertised the trade in April and it was met with a slow response, but that has changed and the last few months has seen strong interest develop.
The success of this scheme by Gippsland Water may spring a topic in next year’s Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing Conference, stay tuned around February/March 2020 for more information!
Talking about the scheme, Gippsland Water managing director Sarah Cumming said that the water trading will bring a number of benefits to the area.
“Water trading has several benefits. The extra supply releases more water for farmers in drought, helps hold groundwater market prices down and provides additional revenue for Gippsland Water, which in turn benefits all of our customers,” explained Ms Cumming.
What’s more, none of the trades will impact residential customers or the supply of their drinking water.
“We would like to reassure our customers that these trades have been made based on detailed analysis of our customers’ current drinking water needs, and will have no impact on our ability on water security,” Ms Cumming concluded.
The approved groundwater trades will come from the Boisdale aquifer which stretches from Golden Beach to Kilmany, Maffra, and almost to Bairnsdale.
For more information on the Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing program, contact Barwon Water’s Michael Thomas or head to the program page on the IWN website.