RURAL water supplier Lower Murray Water has warned customers that it’s focused on water compliance and will penalise water theft.
In addition to managing the unauthorised take and use of water and ensuring customers maintain a positive balance of their allocation account, LMW will issue penalty notices to customers who take water without the appropriate authorisation or who breach their licence conditions. This will come into effect from November 1.
A risk-based approach will be applied to those customers who do not place an order in LMW’s ordering system but take the water anyway.
LMW interim managing director Paul O’Donohue said water was a “valuable resource and it’s incredibly important that everyone only take their fair share”.
“To maintain confidence and integrity in the system, and to ensure a fair system for everyone, LMW will continue to penalise those who do the wrong thing,” he said.
“Customers have adapted well to the new changes relating to the use of infringement notices as a tool to manage unauthorised take last season, and our ability to closely monitor usage and compliance to ensure users only take what they’re entitled to has enabled us to educate customers and ensure they understand the expectations required of them under the Water Act.
“This season, we shift our focus to ensure that everyone is doing the right thing in accessing water fairly as there is an impact and a knock-on effect to other users in the system when people do the wrong thing and take water when they shouldn’t.
“LMW can easily see those customers who are not compliant with the conditions of their licences and the rules as outlined in the rural customer charter and now have another tool at its disposal to more effectively manage this non-compliance.”
