The amount of water lost from TasWater's infrastructure each day is enough to fill 28 Olympic-sized swimming pools, a report from the state's Economic Regulator shows.
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The regulator in the most recent report on the state of Tasmania's water and sewerage infrastructure during 2022-23 claims that the company continues to deal with high rates of leakage from its systems, and it is estimated that 28 per cent of potable water was unaccounted over the reported period.
There is an estimated real water loss of 10.6 kilolitres per kilometre of water main each day, the report states.
There are 6557 kilometres of water main throughout the state, which means the company is losing 69,504 kilolitres of water a day.
"TasWater's water losses continue to be the highest of all major Australian water utilities by a substantial margin," the regulator wrote.
"Per service connection, TasWater's real losses were over four and a half times the median for similar sized mainland utilities, which was 69.3 litres per day in 2022-23".
The regulator noted that the number of unplanned water interruptions per 1000 properties increased from 229 in 2021-22 to 239 in 2022-23.
"This exceeded the service standard of 170 unplanned interruptions per 1 000 properties," it said.
TasWater was issued with five environmental infringement notices for offences in 2022-23, six formal warnings for contravention of environmental permits, and two water systems were reported to have had chemical contaminants above safe levels.
Complaints about the water company decreased in 2022-23 to 2457, from 2541 the year before.
Fifity-seven per cent of complaints were about water quality.
TasWater customer and community general manager Matt Balfe said the company started a $4 million program two years ago to install 220 district metered areas across the state to help identify hidden underground leaks and prioritise their repair.
"As well as finding the hidden leaks, our crews have also been busy attending bursts above the ground that lead to unplanned interruptions," he said.
"The report shows that we fixed these quicker than in the past."
Tasmanian Small Business Council chief executive Robert Mallett said if TasWater was a private sector business, it would have entered into receivership years ago.
"(The report) highlights gross inefficiencies of an untouchable organisation which has total control of the water inputs and sewerage outputs of virtually every small business and household in the state," he said.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
