The challenges facing regional water equality By Tracy Ong
In July 2010, the United Nations amended the universal declaration of human rights to include access to clean, safe water as a fundamental right. You would think then that all people in Australia would enjoy access to safe, secure water and wastewater services, right? For most Australians, particularly those in metropolitan areas, this isn’t a problem. In New South Wales, Sydney and Hunter Water customers enjoy water with 100 per cent compliance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG). But for many of those living in rural and regional parts of the state, accessing safe, secure and efficiently priced water and sewerage services is much less straightforward. For one, the majority of regional water consumers are paying more for their water and sewerage compared with those in metropolitan areas of the state. Based on a uniform household consumption rate of 200kL per annum, close to 65 per cent of the state’s local water utilities have higher ‘typical residential water bills’ than the metropolitan average.
We are concerned that customers in regional and rural areas are not receiving adequate service and are exposed to water quality risks, particularly in New South Wales and Queensland.
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