More than 100 water hydrants were upgraded in 2020 as part of a Council project to maintain the service vital to firefighting operations.
Branch Manager Water Services Narelle D'Amico said the project was one of the major accomplishments achieved by staff last year.
“This work entailed going through and checking hydrants, upgrading them and making sure that our network was secure by increasing pressure and flow throughout the network,” she said.
“This is really important work as it keeps our water sources free and available to use in times of need, especially during our high fire danger season.”
Narelle said as part of the hydrant work, staff still maintained normal operations including responding to call outs.
“We were able to track that we had an average of 88 jobs per week in 2020, which saw our team assisting the community and keeping services running for our Council,” she said.
“These jobs included fixing blockages, maintaining sewer overflow, low pressure issues and more.”
While rainfall amounts were higher last year than in 2019, Narelle said water consumption throughout the region remained much the same.
“We believe this was actually as a result of the large demand we had from bulk fill points and standpipes around our network supporting people that were not connected to town water.
“As for our wastewater treatment, we had a 10 percent increase on flows for treatment plants across Council's nine sites in 2020.”
Gregory River Water Treatment Plant
Another major project for Bundaberg Regional Council in 2020 included continued work to the Gregory River Water Treatment Plant.
Water and Wastewater portfolio spokesperson Cr Jason Bartels said the multi-million dollar project began construction in November 2019 and once complete, would improve water quality for residents.
“We are constructing a new water purification plant adjacent to the Gregory River which will place the plant that currently supplies Childers and Woodgate,” he said.
“The project is about 50% completed and the new plant will be operational this year.”
Cr Bartels said last year's work coincided with the Kalkie Water Treatment Plant upgrade.
“These major projects are on track to future proofing the region’s water supply in Childers, Woodgate, Bargara and other coastal areas,” he said.
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