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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-12-06 Daily Xml
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SA Water

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Water and the River Murray regarding SA Water.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: On Friday 18 November, a blocked pipe sent sewage flooding into a family property in Gawler East, soaking almost every room in the house with up to 15 centimetres of raw effluent. The damage this blocked pipe inflicted has been estimated to keep the family out of their home until after Christmas, yet, in spite of this, the family says they were given no support in packing up their damaged belongings and cleaning their property so that the repairs could begin, but were instead given a $100 Coles Myer voucher and one night's emergency accommodation, for which they had to foot the bill.

SA Water, I understand, was supposed to have a unit which was going to improve its response to these particular incidents. What has that particular unit done for this family and does the minister consider that SA Water's response has been adequate in this situation?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (14:22): I thank the honourable member for her most important question about a blocked sewerage pipe in Gawler East. The honourable member didn't put a lot of detail in her question. I invite her to approach me with the details of that particular incident and I will see what I can do about it. I don't have any information at hand about this. In terms of blockages, if they are on the landowner's side, of course, they are the responsibility of the landowner, in terms of sewerage and also water pipes. SA Water's responsibility starts at the boundary line, or where the meter is, I should say.

In the case of sewerage, SA Water does everything it can to help, particularly home owners, when there is a problem. These are presumably home owners, but, again, I don't know. I invite the honourable member to give me further details so I can check on her behalf for the constituent she is inquiring about. I don't know whether they contacted SA Water or SA Water had a contact posted to them through another source. Nonetheless, SA Water does have a customer assist team, particularly for major breaks, that goes out and talks to impacted households and offers them support, be it in terms of either a quick response voucher or emergency accommodation, should it be required, and gives them advice about the length of time the service will be out for and how long it will take to complete any repairs.

In addition to sewerage, of course, SA Water is also very helpful, as I know from a situation that occurred out at Globe Derby, in terms of getting clean-up crews to assist home owners. Again, I don't know the particulars of this particular event. I invite the honourable member to share with me the details so I can check with SA Water.

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