Prioritising urgent faults

With hundreds of kilometres of pipes across our service area, we take a coordinated approach to respond to the most urgent issues first. 

Our dedicated faults team is on call 24/7, working to assess, prioritise and respond to every report we receive. Here's how we make sure you get the fastest and most effective service possible. 

Your safety comes first

Every fault gets assessed by our team based on two key factors: 

1. The safety of the community
2. The impact on your water service

We prioritise repairs that have the biggest impact on community safety or cut off water to homes and businesses. So, a burst water main that’s flooding a busy road or leaving hundreds of people without water will get our fastest response.

When we identify an urgent issue, our crews aim to be on-site within 30 minutes to make things safe and begin repairs.

How we prioritise our response

Our priority system reflects the impact each situation has on the community.

An example of a water main burst.

Our crews handle all kinds of faults including:

• Leaking or burst pipes
• Water quality concerns
• Low water pressure
• No water supply

Urgent issues include:

• Major water main bursts affecting roads or businesses
• Faults that pose safety risks
• Issues affecting lots of people
• Situations that could harm the environment

Less urgent issues might include:

• Minor street leaks
• Leaks from hydrants that aren't creating immediate issues
• Small leaks that don’t affect your water supply

How we assess each situation

A suburban street nature strip shown with water leaking on to the footpath.

When you report a fault, our team looks at a range of factors to decide how quickly we need to respond, including:

• How many people are affected
• Whether there's a public safety risk
• Environmental impact
• Where the fault is and how it affects the local area
• Current weather conditions

This helps us decide where to send our experienced crews and what they'll need to get the job done.

Keeping you updated

We know it’s frustrating when there’s a fault that affects your day. That’s why we keep you updated. When you report a fault, we'll give you a reference number and let you know how long it’s likely to take. If things change or the job takes longer than expected, we'll let you know.

You can also check the status of reported faults and planned works in your area anytime using our online outage map.

Our commitment to you

We’re here to provide safe and reliable water services for all our customers.

With over 560,000 customers across 3,700 square kilometres, our priority system helps us deliver the best possible service - while keeping the whole network running smoothly.

Report faults anytime

If you see something that doesn’t look right, let us know. If it's an emergency, like gushing water, no water at all or every fixture in your house is blocked, call 13 44 99, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

You can also visit our report a fault page to report a fault online. If you’re out and about, you can report a fault on your mobile using the Snap Send Solve app. Download the app and sign up, snap a photo of the issue and send it in. A picture can really help us to identify and fix the issue quickly and appropriately.

For more information about faults and helpful advice, visit Faults and works.