Residents’ input to the desalination project

During the construction of the desalination plant and pipeline, Sydney Water formed a Project Liaison Group. This group included representatives from the major contractors, Sydney Water, residents and the local council. Following suggestions from the community, some changes were made to construction methods. These included:

• starting work at one site at 8 am, rather than 7 am
• using perspex as part of a noise barrier, to reduce shading on houses and partly retain residents’ views
• drilling and pouring piles rather than hammering steel sheets, to reduce noise and vibration
• using geofabric netting to stop construction fill mixing with sand on Silver Beach, Kurnell during construction of the pipeline.

In addition, the 18 kilometre desalination pipeline’s route through built-up areas was limited to three residential streets. This minimised the impact on the community.

Quickly updating customers

Sydney Water can now give customers real time information on fault repairs. A computer-based scheduling system, introduced in 2008–09, means crews can now update information while they are on-site.

Customer Contact Centre Team Leader Nadine Milostnik says ‘before the system was introduced, staff spent time making calls to maintenance staff to check the status of a job.

‘Whether customers have water supply problems or are experiencing a wastewater overflow, we can now keep them updated on the progress of the work.

‘Customers are getting a better service. This is showing up in increased customer satisfaction and a 35% drop in complaints about fault repairs,’ Nadine said.

The new system has also improved response times, reduced revisits and means that Sydney Water can respond faster to emergencies. Resource coordinators can quickly identify available crews with the equipment and expertise to send to jobs.

Stage 2 of the system, rolled out from early 2009–10, is also making jobs safer – with access to updated network maps, safety information and work instructions.