Giving Back – Community Resilience Grant in Response to Inverloch Boil Water Advisory

Thursday, April 21st, 2022

Giving Back – Community Resilience Grant in Response to Inverloch Boil Water Advisory

South Gippsland Water is exploring ways to give back and help build a stronger more resilient community as a part of its recent Inverloch Boil Water Alert.  In March of this year, South Gippsland Water issued a precautionary Boil Water Advisory for the township of Inverloch.  This meant that for a period of 5 days, customers needed to boil their water before drinking and using water in food preparation.

This incident impacted customers to varying degrees, dependant on individual circumstances, with some of our more vulnerable community members more at risk than others.  South Gippsland Water has reviewed the incident and our response and as a part of continuous improvement, will be making a number of improvements to systems and processes.  One of the first things to come out, has been a desire to give back to the community in recognition of the impact it had to the people of Inverloch.

Managing Director of South Gippsland Water, Philippe du Plessis said, “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by the boil water advisory, that’s why we are proposing that the organisation ‘give back’ to the Inverloch community”.

“We are proposing that an Inverloch Community Resilience Grant of $10,000 be established in response to this incident.  The particulars of who might receive grant monies and how it might be administered are yet to be detailed, but the organisation is committed to working to help build community resilience in response to future incidents or emergencies”.

Mr du Plessis continued, “It is envisioned that this grant may help our more vulnerable customers or improve the wider community’s ability to cope when something goes wrong. At this stage we are keeping an open mind about the type of projects or community groups it may be able to assist.  We will seek feedback from the community as to how they think we should proceed”.

The Corporation is also exploring, as part of its five-year plan 2023-2028, whether such a grant should be a part of our Guaranteed Service Levels, that the organisation would administer a grant for another town should a similar incident occur elsewhere in future.  If you are interested in participating in this discussion, or want your thoughts heard in the establishment of the resilience grant for Inverloch, please email media@sgwater.com.au to register your interest.

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