Gippsland Water customers will be asked to choose between a rock and a hard place at forums to take place across the region this month.
Customers will be asked to choose between an annual rise in cost of 1.32 per cent plus CPI for the next five years, or an up-front one-off rise, followed by an annual CPI increase only.
Gippsland Water released its Draft Water Plan 3 Proposal yesterday which details how the corporation will maintain and upgrade its almost $1 billion infrastructure, maintain and upgrade its service and the prices that consumers will pay.
Gippsland Water maintains the draft plan, if implemented, would put an end to significant price rises, which have been levied to cover the costs of essential long term infrastructure projects.
In a 33-page media kit announcing plans to consult with the community over the price rises, the corporation details its work and the many projects and operations it is currently involved with, to justify the proposed price rises.
Major projects include the Loch Sport Sewerage Scheme which will cost a total of $40.3 million, $1.3 million for Sale-Fulham irrigation infrastructure, $5.3 million for a Sale Water Treatment Plant upgrade and a total $22.45 million for the Coongulla-Glenmaggie Sewerage Scheme.
Gippsland Water managing director David Mawer said the organisation was mindful of the uncertainty in the community and the climate of constraint that created.
