South East Queensland Pressure and Leakage Management Project

The Challenge:
Save 60 million litres of water per day through pressure and leakage management across the South East Queensland region of Australia as a key component of the “Millennium Drought” emergency response.

 

The Project:
Prior to founding Econnics, Director Kirk Stinchcombe was co-creator and project director of the SEQ Pressure and Leakage Management Project.  This project involved overseeing and coordinating the activities of 18 different water service providers which served a region of 2.8 million people.  The objective was to design, install and commission district meter areas (DMAs) across as much of the region as possible. 

 

Because of the urgency of the drought, the work was scheduled under a dramatically compressed time frame – over 300 DMAs to be installed in under three years.  Critical coordination activities involved overseeing distribution of state government subsidy funding; working with key stakeholders such as firefighters and the building safety industry; and assisting water service providers with procurement and access to technical expertise. 

 

Challenges included the fact that there was considerable public attention on the project, a major shortage of specialised skilled labour, and technical disputes between parties about the optimal way to implement the technology.

 

The Result:
As of October 2008, the South East Queensland region was conserving over 47 million litres or water per day directly as a result of pressure and leakage management, with 64 million litres per day in savings projected by 2012.  Over 138 DMAs were installed and 322 had been commenced. 

 

With over $70 million spent, the project remains the largest of its kind ever undertaken under highly compressed timeframes.