Transcript
Klaus Nannestad
Welcome to Talking Water with GMW ,where we discuss all things water.
This month we're joined by Water Efficiency Project Director Sean Tenace.
With the Water Efficiency Project nearing completion, Sean looks back on what the project has achieved and what it means for the future of our region.
We have episodes on a range of topics on our website, so there's plenty more to listen to after this one.
Klaus Nannestad
Thanks very much for joining us today, Sean. Can I start by getting a bit of your backstory and how you ended up becoming involved in the Water Efficiency Project?
Sean Tenace
Thanks Klaus, thanks for having me. I joined the Connections Project just pre-reset. I had a variety of roles - I come from a finance background - so I've done a bit of commercial type roles, then worked through what is now the Water Efficiency Project, and I took over the role of Project Director at the end of October 2022.
I'm a local guy. I've lived in the Shepparton area my whole life. My family comes from a farming background, so the project and what it was trying to do really resonated with me, hence why I sought the opportunity what seems like a lifetime ago, back pre-reset, to join the project and hopefully contribute to what is now a modernised irrigation network.
Klaus Nannestad
And so with the Water Efficiency Project, how did it come about in the first place, Sean?
Sean Tenace
Well, the Water Efficiency Project was initiated at the end of the Connections Project. So, as most people are probably aware, the Connections Project was Australia's largest irrigation infrastructure project and it delivered in excess of 400 GL of water savings, 433, to be precise, which actually exceeded its target by 4 GL.
So all that work was done by replacing old assets and what was now deemed redundant in this modern age: The detheridge wheels, the old regulators with drop bars with electronic meters, automated flume gates. We remediated our channels. We decommissioned hundreds of kilometres of channel to get the network back to something that could survive into the future. These works undoubtedly improved irrigation standards across the region, but also contributed to the improved efficiency of irrigation for in excess of 8000 customers.
So the Connections Project was huge, it wrapped up in 2020. At that point in time, it was recognised that there was further potential water savings and hence we expanded the context of the project and thus the Water Efficiency Project was subsequently launched.
Klaus Nannestad
It's obviously a huge investment in this region. Can you tell me a bit about why these water savings are so important to our area?
Sean Tenace
Yeah, absolutely Klaus. So even with the higher than usual rainfall in recent years, we know the long term inflows into our storages is declining due to climate change and a number of other issues. For example, in the late 1990s, the average inflows into the Goulburn system have dropped about 3000 GL per year to just under 2000 GL per year. So that's significant change.
And therefore on the back of that, no doubt irrigators have innovated and have found new methods to do more with the water they receive. So it's important that we, as a statutory organisation, do the same. So therefore these projects are vital to not only the prosperity of the region but also the businesses built off the back of what the irrigation Food Bowl is in GMID and to maintain its reputation as Victoria's Food Bowl.
Klaus Nannestad
And what were some of the aims of the Water Efficiency Project?
Sean Tenace
The primary aim of the project was to achieve another 15.9 GL in annual water savings. But on the back of that there's a couple of other things that are byproducts of that, and that's treating in excess of 250 kilometers worth of channel and over a thousand outlets.
In turn, that benefits over a thousand customers and did produce around a thousand regional jobs at the height of construction. So again, massive input to the whole area across a range of industries. The project also was expected to increase GDP in excess of about $167 million.
Klaus Nannestad
That's a good point actually, about the jobs outside the irrigation industry it creates, because so much of our area has grown around the irrigation system and infrastructure that has been built.
Sean Tenace
Correct. Exactly. And contractors doing works in local areas, obviously they've got to find accommodation, eat and all those kind of things. So it really spreads right through the community. So that obviously allows a smaller town and whatnot to prosper long into the future.
Klaus Nannestad
And so I guess the question is then, did the project achieve what it originally set out to do?
Sean Tenace
Yeah, we have managed to meet all our aims and we've actually managed to overachieve on our key target, being being water saving. So subject to our final audits and verification. we look like we will achieve around 18 GL, which is roughly 15 per cent over our target, which is a huge effort by the team and also all the communities and their guys we've worked with and our contractors as well, we wouldn't have got there without all their support. Crucially, and I guess one of the real flagships of the project has been our safety record. So we've completed over 500,000 labour hours of work and all of those have been undertaken without a single lost time injury. As far as statistics go. And reporting OHS that is in the top in, 2%. So that just shows what is possible out in the region, and again, it's been a huge success behind the project.
But we've also seen other positive flow on effects such as upskilling and retaining locals with special skills, and experience and bringing new people to the region to capitalize on the irrigation opportunities available. So there's definitely been something in it for everyone.
Klaus Nannestad
Yeah, and so 18 GL is obviously a huge amount of savings. How will these savings benefit irrigators in the region? How would they see the change?
Sean Tenace
I think with irrigation and what we've done with the system, so from an irrigation perspective you would expect to see an improved level of service, improved water quality and efficiency in delivery and I think that's obviously what irrigators would be looking for, are these type of work and the fact that we've achieved the water savings and done that I think has made hopefully irrigation practices on farm a hell of a lot easier in the areas that have done worse.
I guess there's been other benefits as well. We've removed some channels in and around schools, namely out at Nanneella and one here in Shepparton East where we've replaced an open channel with a pipeline. And so that's not only improved irrigation and made it more efficient, but it's also removed what could be a problem in the community by way of open channels running parallel to schools. Also at Kerang we've just over eight kilometers of open channel through the township with the pipeline. So again, really off the back of that again it's improved community safety and there's also a benefit to irrigators in the efficiency in delivering water.
Then namely, our Last Winter Works period similar on the outskirts of Echuca, around the race course there we've replaced channel with 11 kilometres of gravity fed pipeline. So that's benefit over 100 customers, there's a lot of D&S customers around there and that was hugely manual and I know that was a nightmare for the GMW local operation. So again, that's something that projects was a very challenging one - it was a very wet year last year, as mos people will attest - so again, that's something that the team is very proud of.
Klaus Nannestad
So from a practical level, what sort of works did the project involve?
Sean Tenace
So very similar to the Connections Project, I guess our main categories of work, for want of a better term, was meter replacement and rationalisation, regulator replacement and rationalisation, with the new automated regulators, installation of gravity pipelines, and the decommissioning of channels. We also had a small section of channel that we remediated with plastic out in the primary area. And then the other type of work we did with them on farm works with landowners, reconnecting them back to the channel to, as I touched on before, to get those real benefits out of modernizing the network and hopefully improving the way they receive water on farm.
So that was the main types of work. And as I touched on earlier, that resulted in treating in excess of 250 kilometers of channel, over a thousand outlets and really converting some sections of open channel with pipeline. So again, there's numerous benefits to that, not only a team operational perspective but also a community and irrigator perspective as well.
Klaus Nannestad
And it sounds like you worked quite closely with a lot of the landholders and farmers to identify where the best areas for these changes were.
Sean Tenace
Yeah, absolutely. I mean every area, every project that we've worked on formed part of a reconfiguration plan. So we really tried to tailor the solution to what the landowner and irrigation requirements were in that area and also worked in with GMW local operations, if there was any other bugbears from the past where we could improve the running of the system or the operation of the system, we definitely tried to piggyback off that in this and hopefully set something up that long outlives all of us.
Klaus Nannestad
And so now with the project wrapping up any further water saving initiatives that are planned for the region?
Sean Tenace
Yeah Klaus. GMW has got several initiatives outside what we at the Water Efficiency Project have done and now look to continue efficiency, and that includes a number of things such as improving compliance methods, increasing water capture through its hybrid drainage program, continued modernisation of assets as people change in the way they use water on farm. And the frequency that I'll look to continue this in this type of work in the future, participating in development of policies that supports sustainable water management and the use of improves irrigation demand forecasting, all the things that can be done now off the back of a modernised system.
So they'll always be I think now from a social perspective, with water scarcity, I know it seems funny now how much water there is around, but we will go through a dry period at some point in time. So I think socially one of the things that I've seen in my time on the project is how people view on water and how it should be used. I think it's changed a lot in my time associated with what has been the Connections and Water Efficiency Projects.