Collaboration Flows in the Water Sector

Friday, February 27th, 2015

Pictured Left-Right: Terry Burghi (Chairman Southern Rural Water), Trevor Nink (Chairman Westernport Water), Joan Liley (Chair South Gippsland Water), Joe Rettino (Chairman East Gippsland Water and Chair of MoU Group).

Southern Rural Water has joined forces with the other water corporations in Gippsland to explore opportunities to share costs and improve services. 

The rural water corporation is now the fifth member of an industry-leading initiative that is focused on delivering efficiencies and service improvements for water customers.  “This is a significant milestone for our industry, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Group, and a win for our customers,” said Chairman of MoU Group Mr Joe Rettino of East Gippsland Water.

“With Southern Rural Water coming on board we now have five water businesses working together to improve services and place downward pressure on bills,” said Mr Rettino.

East Gippsland Water, South Gippsland Water, Gippsland Water and Westernport Water signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November 2013 to work together to increase the effectiveness of each organisation.

“Over 15 months, our four Gippsland water corporations have identified efficiencies and improvements across areas such as procurement, fleet management, customer services and meter reading. Adding Southern Rural Water to our partnership only broadens our opportunity to deliver benefits for customers,” added Mr Rettino.

Southern Rural Water Chair, Terry Burgi, said that whilst the organisation operates a very different business to urban water corporations – serving the needs of irrigators and rural water customers rather than households – they all share some common services such as IT and fleet.

“Southern Rural Water has a challenging strategy that is seeing the organisation undergo major change.  We believe that even just by sharing knowledge, the Gippsland based water MoU Group can add to this process.

“I look forward to seeing what opportunities might emerge from this partnership.”

The five water business will signed their Memorandum of Understanding at the Victorian Water Industry Conference on Thursday 26 February 2015.