Huge Success for Ngukurr Leak Reduction Project

Roper Gulf Regional Council would like to congratulate the Ngukurr community, for winning the 2020 Tidy Towns Sustainable Community Award for Water Conservation.

The town’s water conservation success has been a result of Power and Water Corporation’s Ngukurr Leak Production Project, a joint project with the Department of Local Government, Housing and Community Development (DLGHCD) that located and repaired water leaks in Ngukurr.

Through its not-for-profit subsidiary Indigenous Essential Services, this project enabled Power and Water to provide sustainable water supply to the Ngukurr community and support continual community growth.

Investigations by Power and Water had identified that up to 80% of the 1.4M of water extracted from the bore field each day was being lost through leakages in the water network and customer side infrastructure.

The project resulted in the reduction of leaks by approximately 50%, equating to savings of more than 6L per second.

This means that the need for additional water infrastructure, such as bores and water storage tanks, has now been deferred for many years.

The $3.3M project was also the winner of the 2020 Australian Water Association’s (AWA) Northern Territory ‘Infrastructure Project Innovation Award (Regional)’ at the NT Water in the Bush conference in 2020.

Power and Water is committed to delivering positive Aboriginal outcomes through employment on Capital Infrastructure Projects.

For the Ngukurr project, the Aboriginal Employment Target of 30% for contracts within the Northern Territory was exceeded with Aboriginal people averaging 40% of the workforce.

“We have been pleased to collaborate with the people of Ngukurr to help provide a sustainable water supply and support community growth” said Steven Porter, Executive General Manager Water Services, Power and Water Corporation.

Roper Gulf Regional Council would like to thank Power and Water Corporation for their commitment to water conservation and sustainability in the Ngukurr community and the Department of Local Government, Housing and Community Development for providing funding for this project.

“We would also like to thank all the wonderful residents of Ngukurr, who have shown a great level of support to Power and Water and to Council in their own ongoing water conservation and sustainability efforts around the community”, Madam Mayor Judy MacFarlane said.