Be patient, that’s the key message from the Connections irrigation project director Frank Fisseler.
He said he was aware of the frustrations of many irrigators, still waiting for modernisation, under the $2 billion project.
“Customers say why did you plastic line this channel and not our channel?
“Why did you do this there, and not there?” Mr Fisseler said. “Obviously we have 6000km of channels and we are focussing on those with high water losses. We have all the data to determine what the high water losses are; some customers think their channel loses a lot of water, but when you look at the detail, it may not lose that much water. Or there are only one or two customers on the channel, who are not using that much water.”
“There is no one size fits all, the reset allows for different solutions, for different channels.”
Mr Fisseler said Connections had achieved 251 gigalitres (GL) of audited savings, with another 178GL to go – and he was confident the figures were right.
“We are independently audited, every year, on those water savings, because you know what’s coming into the sytem and what is going out – that is absolutely visible
“It is probably the most robust system in Australia.
“All the effort Victoria has put in to calculate water savings out of those irrigation projects is extraordinarly robust.”
“It’s black and white what comes into the system and what goes out to customers and what you lose in seepage,” Mr Fisseler said.
Water Minister Lisa Neville announced a reset, after a mid-term review of the project, about 12 months ago.
She claimed $827 million of available funds remained, to finish the project, made up of $439 million of funds already committed and $388 million available in uncommitted funds.
Mr Fisseler admitted every day was a challenge, when it came to the project. “Not only do we have the largest Winter Works program, which is worth $100 million, we also have those legacy issues, all of which require a lot of effort in fixing. I am determined we will get there, but this is a challenging project, no doubt.
“It’s challenging in a different way, it’s different because we have so many customers involved. Its not necessarily challenging from the engineering side, but it’s really about making it all work.
“The biggest challenge for me is the past - all these legacy issues in themselves would require a whole project team to address.”
Mr Fisseler said the project would run until 2020, “but sometimes I have to ask for a little bit of patience, and obviously that is a challenge too.”
He said he was keen to meet with irrigators who had raised issues, and make his own assessment.
“I think we are closing out those old issues, one at a time.”
There were still 1200 customers to go, but 8000 new meters would be installed by the end of the project, “which is a massive amount, when you think it is the largest irrigation project in Australia.”
“It motivates me resolving issues, it gives me a lot of satisfaction; every case I resolve is a big win, this makes me strive to do better.”
He said he didn’t want irrigators left with solutions, which had not worked in the past.
“The only interest I have is to have a positive legacy for the GMID, that’s ultimately what I want to achieve.”