Media Release
FROM 1 July 2022, Melbourne Water will partner with specialist maintenance and capital delivery provider, Programmed, to help maintain the city’s water supply catchments, 1,300 kilometres of distribution pipes, and recycling and treatment plants that provide high-quality drinking water to Melbourne residents.
The contract, which is up to 10-years, will see Programmed provide maintenance and minor capital works across Melbourne Water’s asset base, that includes water, sewage, waterways, drainage and flood areas.
Melbourne strong
Programmed’s affinity with Melbourne runs deep.
They already maintain some of the city’s most iconic institutions such as the MCG, the Shrine of Remembrance, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Airport and City Hall, together with almost 200 critical City of Melbourne government buildings, libraries, swimming pools and child-care centres and provides make safe services to more than 1,700 government school campus’ across Victoria.
Programmed CEO of Facility Management Graeme Hurn said it was deeply satisfying that his company was broadening its Victorian pedigree by helping provide a reliable water and wastewater supply to Melbourne.
“Melbourne is one of the great cities in the world, and we are honoured to be strengthening our involvement with it, by partnering with Melbourne Water to maintain the city’s vital water supply into the 2030s,” he said.
“Our teams are knowledgeable, experienced and eager to deliver these critical services to millions of Melbournians through their retail water service providers.
“Programmed already maintains Melbourne’s Greater Western Water and Sydney Water, which made our specialist water teams ideally suited to support Melbourne Water’s strategy into the future.
“Among our many priorities, we will focus on driving innovation and continuous improvement via smart use of water technology, as well as insights generated through advanced data analytics.
”Programmed is also committed to social and indigenous engagement and we will be providing even more training, apprenticeships, and indigenous employment opportunities through our Water Academy.”
“Melbourne is one of the great cities in the world, and we are honoured to be strengthening our involvement with it, by partnering with Melbourne Water to maintain the city’s vital water supply into the 2030s”
Graeme Hurn, Programmed CEO of Facility Management
Melbourne Water is a Victorian government-owned statutory authority that controls much of the city’s water system including its reservoirs, sewerage and drainage that service the city.
It is responsible for:
- delivering about 450 billion litres of water annually and receiving almost 320 billion litres of sewage from Melburnians through retailers[1].
- about 1,300 kilometres of distribution mains and aqueducts.
- catchments covering more than 140,000 hectares.
- reducing flood risk across 13,000 square kilometres in the Port Philip and Westerport catchments[1]
- 10 major storage reservoirs with a capacity of 1,810,500 mega litres.
- 64 service reservoirs that provide short-term storage.
- 18 water pumping stations, used to pump water from low-lying areas to higher areas.
- five water filtration plants.
- 49 water treatment (disinfection) plants.
- Western treatment plant – world leader in environmentally friendly sewerage treatment
- Eastern treatment plant – treating millions of litres of wastewater each day and providing Class A recycled water
The city’s 10 reservoirs are Thomson, Sugarloaf, Cardinia, Greenvale, Tarago, Upper Yarra Silvan, O’Shannassy, Maroondah, and Yan Yean.
Programmed is Australia’s largest provider of staffing, operations, and maintenance services and employs about 30,000 people across Australia and New Zealand.
[1] “Melbourne Water 101, Who we are, what we do and who we work with” Page 3
