Coliban Water said the recent outbreak of blue-green algae at Lake Eppalock had led to the pipe’s reopening.

General manager Neville Pearce said the Bendigo connection of the superpipe was back in operation because of a rise in demand for water and ongoing poor raw-water quality from Lake Eppalock.

Mr Pearce said he was expecting about 30 to 50 megalitres per day to be pumped through the superpipe. “Sourcing water from our Goulburn allocation is no longer a contingency measure, it is part of our overall water supply operating environment.”

On January 2 this year, Bendigo experienced its largest system demand in nine years, Mr Pearce said, adding that reopening the superpipe would also reduce the demand on the Coliban catchment storages, located near Kyneton.