The theme for this year’s National Water Week theme is ‘United by water’.
At Goulburn-Murray Water we often see the different ways water can unite through our relationships with customers, communities and organisations.
The water we store and deliver serves many different purposes; it is used to irrigate, to be treated and used as town water, to benefit the environment, and to be used for recreation.
The irrigated agriculture industry in northern Victoria generates more than $6 billion of production value each year, with the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District directly supporting more than 10,000 jobs alone.
The importance of water to our region cannot be understated, and it is also important to many of our customers at a more individual level.
This is why we have a strong emphasis on customer service at G-MW.
In addition to our Customer Experience Team, we have water planners rostered to provide customers with 24/7 support throughout the irrigation season, meaning at any time our customers can call to discuss how we can aid their water delivery needs.
We also have customer relationship coordinators across our region who provide personalised customer support with various matters, from helping irrigators with account management to explaining their water entitlements.
We want our customers to prosper because when they thrive the whole region thrives. It is a common interest that unites us.
However, our customers are not exclusively irrigators.
We also supply water to several urban water holders. These are organisations that provide treated drinking water to towns across our region.
We also deliver water to environmental water holders, who place orders for flows that will benefit our environment.
As we do with irrigators, we work closely with these customers to understand their needs and how we can best meet them.
For us, it is not about simply offering a service, but tailoring our service to ensure our customers can meet their specific goals.
This helps us maximise the benefits of the water we are entrusted with delivering and storing, which is a common interest we all share.
We also work with agencies that are not necessarily customers.
For example, we have worked closely with Better Boating Victoria, Maritime Safety Victoria, and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to improve the recreational facilities at many of our storages.
Of particular note is the increased amount of all-abilities facilities we have been able to work together with to install at our storages.
Our storages are wonderful places to visit, so it is heartening to see so many agencies working together to ensure they are accessible to all.
There are other organisations we work closely with to relocate native fish. This often occurs when we dewater our channels in winter, but other opportunities often arise as well.
Water is a valuable resource for everyone, so we look to help others even when it falls outside our usual business.
In the past year, we have hosted delegations from the water sectors in both Thailand and Georgia, providing them with information on our infrastructure and operations that they can take back to their respective countries to make improvements.
Fittingly, we will also be hosting a delegation from Vietnam during National Water Week.
Collaborating with various customers and organisations provides different and unique outcomes, but we are always able to achieve more when we work in unity.