❓ A WA parliamentary question addresses a damaged water main in South Hedland, inquiring about the cause, age, impact, and notification procedures. The Minister's response details the incident, infrastructure details, affected customers, and communication efforts.
AnsweredQoN 931Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
WATER CORPORATION — MAIN DAMAGE — SOUTH
HEDLAND
931. Hon JAMES HAYWARD to the minister representing the
Minister for Water:
I refer to the recently damaged and
repaired water main on Parker Street in South Hedland.
(1) What was the cause of the
damage?
(2) How old was the infrastructure, and when was it last
inspected for routine maintenance?
(3) How many Water Corporation
customers were impacted by the damaged water main?
(4) Were all the residents directly
impacted by the damaged water main notified by the Water Corporation?
HEDLAND
931. Hon JAMES HAYWARD to the minister representing the
Minister for Water:
I refer to the recently damaged and
repaired water main on Parker Street in South Hedland.
(1) What was the cause of the
damage?
(2) How old was the infrastructure, and when was it last
inspected for routine maintenance?
(3) How many Water Corporation
customers were impacted by the damaged water main?
(4) Were all the residents directly
impacted by the damaged water main notified by the Water Corporation?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for the question.
The Minister for Water has provided the following extensive information.
(1) A collar that
joins two pipe sections together developed a leak from the rubber seal. It got
worse very quickly and required an emergency repair.
(2) The main was
constructed in 1975. The pipeline is well within its life expectancy of around
70 years and is part of the Water Corporation's linear asset risk
model, which is used to determine which pipelines are at risk of failure. This
model is run on a regular basis using various assessment criteria and those
pipes that are identified as being high risk are then physically inspected.
(3) There were 5 900
services impacted. Cartons of bottled water and bulk water from l5 000-litre
tanks were made available for collection from the Wanangkura Stadium carpark on
Hamilton Road.
(4) As it was an unplanned, emergency repair, there
was not time to issue letters to every customer. The corporation called more than 60 key business customers—for
example, camps, hospitality and accommodation providers , the hospital et
cetera—to notify them of the unplanned outage and to set up a prerecorded
message on the main faults line. An outage notification page was put onto the
Water Corporation website, with rolling updates. Social media posts targeted
South Hedland Facebook users, with a link back to the outage notification page.
The Water Corporation also requested that the ABC share details of the outage
via radio news bulletins and its local social media channels, and also with the
Town of Port Hedland so that it could share via its own local database of over
10 000 people. The Water Corporation also participated in a radio interview
with the ABC on the Monday morning.
The Minister for Water has provided the following extensive information.
(1) A collar that
joins two pipe sections together developed a leak from the rubber seal. It got
worse very quickly and required an emergency repair.
(2) The main was
constructed in 1975. The pipeline is well within its life expectancy of around
70 years and is part of the Water Corporation's linear asset risk
model, which is used to determine which pipelines are at risk of failure. This
model is run on a regular basis using various assessment criteria and those
pipes that are identified as being high risk are then physically inspected.
(3) There were 5 900
services impacted. Cartons of bottled water and bulk water from l5 000-litre
tanks were made available for collection from the Wanangkura Stadium carpark on
Hamilton Road.
(4) As it was an unplanned, emergency repair, there
was not time to issue letters to every customer. The corporation called more than 60 key business customers—for
example, camps, hospitality and accommodation providers , the hospital et
cetera—to notify them of the unplanned outage and to set up a prerecorded
message on the main faults line. An outage notification page was put onto the
Water Corporation website, with rolling updates. Social media posts targeted
South Hedland Facebook users, with a link back to the outage notification page.
The Water Corporation also requested that the ABC share details of the outage
via radio news bulletins and its local social media channels, and also with the
Town of Port Hedland so that it could share via its own local database of over
10 000 people. The Water Corporation also participated in a radio interview
with the ABC on the Monday morning.
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