What is non-drinking water?
Although the majority of water we supply is drinking water and meets the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act 2003, we also supply non-drinking water to a number of customers under ‘supply-by-agreement’ contracts. This water is not intended for drinking and should not be mistaken as drinking water.
Non-drinking water can be used for:
- laundry
- garden use (subject to permanent water-saving measures)
- stock and domestic animals
- toilet flushing.
Non-drinking water is a classification of water that’s not suitable for drinking, food preparation, cleaning teeth and activities such as bathing or showering where consumption is possible.
Non-drinking water has no protection against disease-causing organisms that may contaminate the water. It likely does not meet the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2011.
Contact us to get stickers stating: “Non-drinking water: NOT suitable for drinking, food preparation or other forms of consumption”.
Make sure non-drinking water supplies are not connected to areas that people might consume water – such as kitchen taps, drinking fountains and bubble taps.
Make sure there are no cross-connections between a non-drinking water supply and your drinking water source.
Tell visitors to your home or business that they should not consume the non-drinking water.
Landlords should notify tenants about non-drinking water – we can provide extra notices.
Managers of accommodation facilities should notify their guests about the non-drinking water supply.
Customers who provide a water supply to others via syndicates or co-operatives should notify their members about the non-drinking water supply. Managers of facilities where non-drinking water taps are accessible to the public should have signs advising that the water is not suitable for consumption. Facilities might include roadside picnic stops, churches, public halls, schools, sporting venues, public gardens and standpipes.
We can supply non-drinking water via supply-by-agreement contracts to customers near water harvesting and water transfer infrastructure.
You would need to be located:
- Next to a transfer main supplying water from a groundwater bore to a water treatment plant where it can be made safe to drink.
- Next to a transfer main that contains water harvested from a river being transported to a water treatment plant where it can be made safe to drink.
- Upstream of a water treatment plant.
- Next to a transfer main supplying water from a reservoir to a water treatment plant where it can be made safe to drink.
Call us on 1300 926 666 to find out more.
Non-drinking water as ‘regulated water’
Untreated, non-disinfected water that’s not intended for human consumption can be declared ‘regulated water’ by the Minister for Health. This can be supplied to local residents under a supply agreement.
We have 2 regulated supplies: Darlington and the North Otway Pipeline.
The Darlington water supply was declared a regulated supply in the Victorian Government Gazette on 7 September 2006. This water is supplied from a local groundwater bore.
The water may contain levels of arsenic and/or micro-organisms in excess of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2011.
For more information, see the Darlington Water Supply Notice.
The North Otway pipeline water supply was declared a regulated water supply in the Victorian Government Gazette on 26 June 2008.
The North Otway pipeline system begins at the offtake weirs in the Arkins Creek Catchment and ends at the Warrnambool Water Treatment Plant.
It includes all pipelines upstream of full treatment plants (at Warrnambool, Terang, Camperdown, Cobden and Simpson) and the disinfection plant at Purnim.
The areas that may draw non-drinking water from the North Otway pipeline include:
- Bostocks Creek
- Bungador
- Carlisle River
- Carpendeit
- Cobrico
- Elingamite
- Framlingham
- Garvoc
- Purrumbete
- South Cudgee
