Coliban Water aims to help fix leaks and save money as customers receive new digital water meters

Since May 2021, the company has alerted more than 260 customers to a major water leak at their property, resulting in a combined water saving of around 50,000 litres every hour.

Executive general manager Strategy, Economics and Data Jarrah O'Shea said the program has already seen huge financial savings to customer water bills and millions of litres of water saved.

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"We've already installed 28,000 digital water meters across the Coliban Water region since 2018, now it's time to deliver to our biggest city to finish the project," he said.

"Some of the leaks recently identified included a hospital that was losing 14,000 litres a day, a service station that was losing 10,000 litres a day, and the Coliban Water team worked extensively with a rural property that was losing 60,000 litres a day."

The digital loggers record water use at the water meter every hour and transmit the data back to Coliban Water daily.

"We're not necessarily focusing on identifying a dripping tap, what we're looking for are major leaks, which are those that are wasting from 100 litres to up to 2000 litres of water every hour," Mr O'Shea said.

"If these leaks are left undetected and left running over the standard three-month bill cycle, the financial impact could be anywhere between $500 and $8500 to a customer's quarterly bill.

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"This initiative is part of our focus on securing water for future generations as we adapt to huge climate change and population growth changes,"

The final stage of digital metering program is expected to take almost two years to complete and will be finalised by the end of 2023.

The digital meters are free of charge and customers will be notified at least seven days prior to the installations, and do not need to be home at the time of installation, which will only take 30 minutes.

Customers can decline a digital meter but will not benefit from our possible leak monitoring and will be required to contact us quarterly with a meter reading to avoid being incorrectly billed.

Customers who have any questions about the digital meter program can call the Customer Support Team on 1300 363 200 or visit the website.

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