Coliban Water

The sixth annual Water Outcomes Report has been released by the Essential Services Commission (ESC). Coliban Water has been highlighted, among other water corporations, as outperforming targets for customer support during a cost-of-living crisis and for the quality of our transparent customer engagement approach that goes beyond. Released earlier this week, the report presents a summative picture of the performance of all Victoria's water businesses against the commitments that were made to customers as part of their respective pricing submission engagement process. Our five commitments, or outcomes, are: • We will supply high quality water you can trust. • We will provide services to meet the needs of our customers now and into the future. • We will reduce our environmental footprint and achieve a socially responsible, sustainable business for future generations. • Our investments will support the economic prosperity of our region. • We will support customers in need. We want to thank our customers, especially the members of our Customer Advisory Groups, who provide us with valuable feedback about our performance on an ongoing basis.

Members of our team recently came together with employees from City of Greater Bendigo to participate in AIIMS training. AIIMS (Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System) is the system used by fire and emergency services when dealing with major incidents and emergencies. By taking part in this training, it allows us to easily integrate with other agencies when incidents occur. The training involved theory, as well as practical components, giving us the experience of what to expect in a real scenario. Thankyou to John and Peter from ACIM Solutions for facilitating the training and providing us valuable insights from their experience in incident management.

On Friday the Hon. Harriet Shing, Minister for Water joined us to celebrate the completion of our Laanecoorie Water Supply Upgrade project. Around 25 guests gathered at our project site at the Laanecoorie Water Treatment Plant to mark the completion of the $5 million project. This will deliver raw water from the South West Loddon Pipeline, operated by GWMWater. Supplying a better quality raw water will mean our plant will have a more efficient and effective treatment process. More than 800 households in Laanecoorie, Dunolly, Tarnagulla and Bealiba will benefit from this $5 million project. Our contractor, Simpson Construction Co. has constructed two new raw water storage tanks – with a total capacity of more than two megalitres – as well as two new raw water pumps. Upgrading assets like the Laanecoorie Water Treatment Plant is an important part of delivering long-term security of supply across the water network. This project is a great example of how we are delivering for our customers, and it means a more reliable and efficient water treatment process, which is a win for our customers.

Our Managing Director Damian Wells recently joined Ben Dillon on the Bendigo Business Stories podcast. They talk about the transformative potential of social procurement and its impact on local communities and businesses, and how we are leveraging our purchasing power to achieve broader community benefits. They also discuss our partnership with DJAARA, girls in STEM and the importance of our graduate program. Bendigo Business Stories is brought to you by Be.Bendigo, your local Chamber of Commerce dedicated to building a thriving ecosystem that supports and empowers local businesses to flourish.

The Bendigo Water Reclamation Plant has been treating the wastewater from sinks, toilets and drains across Bendigo for more than 100 years. Funded by the customers it serves, it remains a critical piece of infrastructure for our community's health, and supports its growth. We're currently looking for highly skilled and motivated people to fill important Project Manager and Construction Manager roles at the plant to ensure continued success and to build for the future. To see our available positions, visit coliban.com.au/careers or find out about one of these exciting opportunities here: Project Manager: https://lnkd.in/g7AjYpkZ Construction Manager: https://lnkd.in/gP5G2jau

We are excited to have been shortlisted along with DJAARA as finalists for the Organisational Excellence Award in the 2024 Australian Water Association Victoria Water Awards. This nomination recognises the partnership between our organisation and DJAARA to ensure long-term sustainable outcomes for people and communities. We'd also like to congratulate all the nominees in this category and across all the awards.

Last week we had two teams competing in the Intelligent Water Networks (IWN) hackathon hosted by Melbourne Water with the theme of caring for the environment with data and analytics. With teams representing a number of water corporations, it was inspiring to see the innovative ways the competitors interpreted and presented the data. Collaborating and sharing ideas and solutions not only benefits our water corporations, but also our customers and environment.

Some of our team, including Senior Water Quality Specialist Sallyanne, joined up with representatives from Bendigo Community Health Services and La Trobe University, Bendigo to play a part in the ‘Ideas to Life Lab’ - all part of the Crazy Ideas College. Here students from Bendigo South East College were challenged to engage with the process involved in making ideas reality – which is always harder than it sounds. While the challenge was a bit crazy, in this case making a tower that could hold a marshmallow, the skills required were not: effective communication, resource management and stakeholder engagement.

During Day 2 of the VicWater Annual Conference, five regional water corporations: Lower Murray Water , Coliban Water, GWMWater, Goulburn Valley Water and North East Water have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form the Murray Mutual Aid Group.   These five water corporations provide water and sewerage services to towns that rely on water from the Murray Darling Basin. While they span much of regional Victoria, they all collectively face extreme weather events that range from drought to floods to fires, often resulting in widespread water quality issues, including algae blooms.   Twice a year the group will come together to plan and build resilience for these types of events and will support each other during the emergencies.   The groups first official meeting was hosted by Coliban Water at their Rochester Water Treatment Plant two weeks ago. The day was aimed primarily at operators who work in the field with water and sewer infrastructure with a focus on emergency management and response, flood recovery, resilience planning and the challenges we might all face during the upcoming summer season.   While this notion of helping each other and sharing information is not new, the MOU provides a more formal arrangement and is a great example of sharing resources and knowledge. #watersector #collaboration #mutualaid

The Passions & Pathways Expo was a great way to wrap up our involvement in the program for 2024. Members of our Education and Events team, Kat and Ben, joined other stakeholders to celebrate the fantastic outcomes the program has produced this year, as well as the opportunity students have had to get a taste of future careers in our region. This year, Coliban Water staff acted as Young Industry Ambassadors, speaking about their career journey to students at St Peters, California Gully, and Winters Flat Primary Schools. We also hosted a workplace tour at our Office in Bendigo. Students from Kangaroo Flat Primary School heard from our experts in water quality, wastewater treatment and engineering, while participating in engaging, hands-on activities. We’re looking forward to next year!