Water Smart Rebates

MidCoast Water has been offering water smart rebates to customers since 2008. Rebates are available for rainwater tanks, dual flush toilets, and water efficient dishwashers, shower heads and washing machines. These rebates encourage water efficiency and help households and businesses to reduce their water use.

Over 13,000 households have taken advantage of the rebates since they were introduced, which has helped to reduce water consumption across MidCoast Water’s service area. Last financial year, approximately 912 households benefited from our water smart rebate program at a cost of $156k at an average payment of about $170 per household.

On average, households that have made use of the water smart rebate program have reduced their water consumption from 185 kL/year to 167 kL/year, or by 10%.

The number of households applying for water smart rebates has been decreasing each year. There was initially good uptake of the rebates in the early years of the scheme, with the number of rebate applications each year decreasing over time. This has been experienced by other water authorities. It is thought that the majority of the households that are interested in and capable of improving their water efficiency have already taken advantage of the scheme.

Subsequently, the amounts available under the rebates were reduced a few years ago, as it had appeared that we had reached most of those interested in the rebates. All rebates except for those available for rainwater tanks were reduced. Other water authorities have ceased their rebate schemes all together, as they are no longer seeing value in providing the rebates.

Water saving will be supported where the benefit exceeds the costs. The main benefits of increased water saving are delaying the costs of future augmentation and lower operating costs.

We will continue to promote our water smart rebate scheme and provide our water smart rebates to our customers to help them reduce their water use, thereby saving our precious resource.

Target

We will aim to provide at least 800 residential smart water rebates per year to help those households reduce their water use by at least 10%