SA Water is a government business enterprise wholly owned by the
Government of South Australia
The Government of South Australia, also referred to as the South Australian Government or the SA Government, is the executive branch of the state government, state of South Australia. It is modelled on the Westminster system, meaning that the h ...
. It is a successor to the Engineering and Water Supply Department, styled E & W S, a state government department, which was itself preceded by the Waterworks and Drainage Commission. SA Water currently reports to the Minister for Housing and Urban Development.
History
Origins
In the early days of Adelaide, citizens not sufficiently wealthy to have their own wells relied on carted water which, coming from the
River Torrens
The River Torrens (Karrawirra Parri / Karrawirraparri) is the most significant river of the Adelaide Plains. It was one of the main reasons for the siting of the city of Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It flows from its source in the Ad ...
at the ford between
Morphett Street and
King William Road
King William Street is the part of a major arterial road that traverses the central business district, CBD and Adelaide city centre, centre of Adelaide, continuing as King William Road to the north of North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace and ...
, was polluted and probably unsafe to drink. The carters were a law unto themselves: exempt from road tolls despite causing more damage to the roads than any other vehicle, and colluding in the rates they charged, ostracising any of their number who undercharged. One carter, "Worthy" Worthington George Nicholls, who was found to be delivering free loads to the poor, was persecuted mercilessly and eventually killed himself.
Waste disposal was similarly chaotic. The effluent from soap factories and tanneries was discharged onto roads or into the River Torrens, and human waste of those who had not dug pits was collected by
night-cart men. There was no systematic drainage of the roads, which in winter could become a quagmire.
John Stephens, editor of ''
The Register
''The Register'' (often also called El Reg) is a British Technology journalism, technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee (journalist), Mike Magee and John Lettice. The online newspaper's Nameplate_(publishing), masthead Logo, s ...
'', knew the city could never progress without a huge investment in public infrastructure, and at a well-attended lecture at the Mechanics' Hall called a public meeting for 13 February 1849 to address the problem. The ''
Adelaide Times'' dismissed the public meeting as Stephens' attempt to upstage
J. H. Fisher, disparaged his lecture, and cast doubts as to whether the "better class of people" would attend. Whatever the reason, only sixty turned up.
Stephens died the following year and no-one with any crusading zeal took his place. The political class was appointed, not elected, so may have been more concerned with balancing the books than investing in the future. Attempts by the City Council to borrow funds to pipe water from
Brownhill Creek were blocked by the
Legislative Council
A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...
.
The Colonial Architect, W. B. Hayes, proposed that a water and sewerage board be formed along the lines of that established for London, but again was defeated by the Legislative Council. Attempts by ''The Register'' to hasten things along met with public apathy.
Waterworks and Drainage Commission
Finally, on 10 June 1856 the Waterworks and Drainage Commission was appointed with Sir
Samuel Davenport as Chief Commissioner, with
G. M. Waterhouse and
J. Lazar (the then mayor of Adelaide) forming the Commission.
G. E. Hamilton was appointed Engineer at a salary of £800 p.a. (considerably more than the Chief Commissioner at £500 and the Commissioners at £200 each.
The membership of the Commission did not last long. Davenport resigned in 1857 to take a seat in South Australia's first elected parliament (he later became Premier),
W. H. Maturin was appointed his successor, and Waterhouse resigned in protest at being sidelined. Maturin resigned in 1858 and this time Waterhouse was appointed Chief.
Hamilton did not last long either. The £175,000 cost estimate for road drainage was not accepted by parliament, the foundations for the weir across the Torrens Gorge had to be made more substantial (and expensive) than originally estimated, and the design for the sewerage and sewage treatment was criticised by
S. C. Homersham as contrary to best practice. The Commissioner of Public Works,
Thomas Reynolds, did his best to undermine Waterhouse's plans. The final straw was a storm and flood in July 1858 which washed away the Torrens Gorge weir (near
Campbelltown), which was found to be defective in construction and materials used. Though the Clerk of Works was found negligent in his oversight of the contract, Hamilton's reputation suffered and he resigned, to be replaced by
John England.
Thorndon Park reservoir was completed in 1860, but England was criticised by
Benjamin Boothby for making excessive payments to contractors on its construction, and left the colony in 1867.
Engineering and Water Supply Department
Having discovered the disadvantages of an independent Commission, in 1859 the government set about creating a Waterworks Department under the Commissioner of Public Works, along with the Roads, Railways, and Telegraph departments. The department became a target of accusations of mismanagement between successive
Hanson
Hanson or Hansson may refer to:
People
* Hanson (surname)
* Hansson (surname)
* Hanson (wrestler) or Ivar (born 1984), American professional wrestler
Musical groups
* Hanson (band), an American pop rock band
* Hanson (UK band), an English ...
and
Reynolds governments, with J. D. Woods, Manager of Waterworks, the unfortunate pawn in the power play.
The Waterworks Department, also known as the Hydraulic Engineer's Department, was merged with the Engineer-in-Chief's Department on November 1st, 1929 to form the Engineering and Water Supply Department.
Julian R. Dridan undertook the role of Engineer in Chief from 1949 to 1965, and Director and Engineer in Chief from 1965 to1966.
SA Water

SA Water was established by the proclamation of the ''South Australian Water Corporation Act 1994'' on 1 July 1995.
Key infrastructure projects undertaken by SA Water and its predecessors include:
*Bores at
Plympton
Plympton is a suburb of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England. It is in origin an ancient Stannary, stannary town. It was an important trading centre for locally mined tin, and a seaport before the River Plym silted up and trade moved down riv ...
and
Morphettville
*
Morgan – Whyalla pipeline (1940–1944)
*
Mannum – Adelaide pipeline (1949–1955)
*
Hope Valley Reservoir (commenced work 1869)
*
Mount Bold Reservoir (commenced work 1932)
*
Bolivar Waste Water Treatment Plant (commenced work 1961)
*
Swan Reach-Paskeville pipeline (extended from Swan Reach-Stockwell pipeline), 1960s
*
Adelaide Desalination Plant (2008–2012)
* North South Interconnection System Project (NSISP) (2010–2013)
Assets and infrastructure
SA Water manages, maintains and operates (with the assistance of its partners) assets worth $13 billion. These include:
*More than 26,000 km of water mains
*More than 8,700 km of sewer mains
*More than 180 km of recycled water mains
*30 water treatment plants
*24
wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on ...
plants
*More than 16 reservoirs with a total capacity of almost 200,000 megalitres
*
Terminal Storage Mini Hydro, a 3MW electricity generator powered by water flowing from Anstey Hill to Hope Valley.
SA Water also owns desalination plants at
Lonsdale and
Penneshaw.
Customers and community
SA Water provides water and wastewater services to a population of approximately 1.5 million people across South Australia. In 2011/12 the total volume of water delivered was 208,144 ML and the average residential consumption per household was 164.3 kL.
SA Water runs a school education program called SA Water Brainwave that is offered free to South Australian schools.
SA Water also offers free community tours of wastewater and water treatment plants.
In 2013, SA Water opened the Kauwi Interpretive Centre at the Adelaide Desalination Plant which is also open for visitors.
Location and staff
SA Water employs more than 1,500 people and has its head office in Victoria Square in Adelaide (SA Water House). Staff are also located across South Australia including offices in Mount Gambier, Berri, Mount Barker, Port Lincoln and Crystal Brook as well as Victoria and New South Wales. SA Water's customer service centre operates out of the head office in Victoria Square. SA Water House is also the headquarters of th
Australian Water Quality Centre(AWQC).
Controversies
Some customers have unknowingly consumed purified recycled wastewater after plumbers employed by builders cross-connected the drinking water supply to the recycled water network.
See also
*
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
*
Lake Victoria (New South Wales)
Lake Victoria, a naturally occurring shallow freshwater lake of the Murray catchment and part of the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the western Riverina region of south western New South Wales, Australia.
The lake is located approximate ...
*
City of Burnside
Notes
References
External links
SA Water homepage*
{{authority control
Organisations based in Adelaide
Water companies of Australia
Companies established in 1995
Government agencies of South Australia
Government-owned companies of South Australia