MALLEE farmers have been left high and dry after Grampians Wimmera Mallee Water shut down its rural water supply following further outbreaks of blue-green algae in the Murray River.
The Wimmera Mallee pipeline’s Pental Island pump ceased operation on Friday, with further pump closures expected to take place at Piangil and Nyah in the coming days.
“Testing of the water at the Nyah and Piangil offtakes on Monday revealed that the concentrations of blue-green algae at these locations remained below the threshold which would require them to be shut off,” GWMWater said.
Berriwillock, Chinkapook, Chillingollah, Culgoa, Lalbert, Manangatang, Nullawil, Sea Lake, Ultima and Waitchie have been affected, with water restrictions enforced for urban customers in these townships until further notice.
Those impacted by the water crisis have condemned the water company’s handling of the situation, claiming they had no prior warning as the region grapples heatwave conditions and very high fire danger ratings.
The pump closure comes only weeks after GWMWater assured customers it was monitoring the situation closely with no imminent threat to its supply.
Mallee farmer Peter Mullan said he was disappointed with the lack of communication which existed between GWMWater and its customers.
Access to water at his property, which is located between Lalbert and Culgoa, was shut off one hour after GWMWater released its first press release at 4pm on Friday.
“I understand this is something new and something bad but the level of communication has let GWMWater down badly,” Mr Mullan said.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (March 9).
