Anstey Hill declared the peak of SA’s tap water

Water produced from SA Water’s Anstey Hill Water Treatment Plant in Adelaide’s north east has been awarded the state’s top drop in this year’s Water Industry Operators Association of Australia (WIOA) Best Tasting Tap Water competition.

The annual competition was held virtually earlier this afternoon with an interstate judging panel assessing samples from 20 of South Australia’s water treatment plants on colour, clarity, odour and ‘mouthfeel’.

SA Water’s Water Production Engineer Liam Tothill said it’s the first time in more than five years the accolade wasn’t taken out by one of the utility’s Riverland facilities.

“Anstey Hill’s bucked the trend of Riverland dominance and finally pulled one back for its metropolitan colleagues!” Liam said.

“We have to roll the years back to 2015 when Happy Valley claimed top drop in the inaugural competition, with the Morgan, Swan Reach and Woolpunda facitilies enjoying the spoils ever since.

“Sourcing its water from either the River Murray or Millbrook Reservoir, Anstey Hill adopts a conventional filtration process before chlorinating the treated water to ensure it’s safe and clean for around 220,000 customers in Adelaide’s northern, eastern and north-eastern suburbs.

“The plant is the city’s second largest facility after Happy Valley and produced more than 30 billion litres of drinking water last financial year.”

Today’s competition also saw entries from treatment plants right across the state, such as Leigh Creek, Murray Bridge, Renmark and Penneshaw, as well as the Adelaide Desalination Plant.

WIOA Chief Operations Officer Craig Mathisen said this year’s state winners have large shoes to fill after Tasmania’s drop won the international competition in 2020.

“Australia’s currently sporting the crown of the world’s best tasting tap water with Tasmania’s victory last year – the first time we’ve won the award – so the pressure’s on for our states to come to the party and compete with the finest drops during next year’s showdown in the United States,” Craig said.

Anstey Hill will compete for Australia’s best tasting tap water in early 2022 at an event hosted by TasWater, winners of last year’s title. The winner of the national competition will then go on to represent Australia in the international competition held in the United States in February.

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