Anstey Hill falls just short in national water competition

SA Water’s Anstey Hill Water Treatment Plant has narrowly missed out on claiming the title of Australia’s top tap water, with New South Wales’ Casino Water Treatment Plant crowned the winner of the Water Industry Operators Association of Australia’s (WIOA) 2021 national best tasting tap water competition.

As part of the annual event, six samples from water treatment facilities across Australia were tasted by an expert panel in Hobart, the home of last year’s winners of the national competition, with samples assessed on the key criteria of colour, clarity, odour and ‘mouthfeel’.

SA Water’s Water Production Engineer Liam Tothill said the result sees South Australia’s dry run in the national title unfortunately continue for another year.

“We came into the event quietly confident that we could get over the line and bring the first national title back to the state, but in the end, it wasn’t to be,” Liam said.

“Regardless of the outcome, we’re still chuffed that water from Anstey Hill can claim to be South Australia’s best for the year, with the five previous winners all coming from treatment plants in the Riverland.

“The aims of the event were to acknowledge the ‘behind the scenes’ work of water operators, get people talking about tap water and showcase the clean, safe, and great tasting water from across the country, and I think today’s event has been a great success in achieving this.

“We congratulate the Richmond Valley Council and the team at the Casino Water Treatment Plant for taking home the crown for 2021, and we’ll dust ourselves off and get ready for next year’s competition!”

Producing more than 30 billion litres of clean, safe drinking water in the last financial year, Anstey Hill is Adelaide’s second largest water treatment plant and serves around 220,000 customers in Adelaide’s northern, eastern, and north-eastern suburbs.

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.

Entries in today’s competition included samples from the Casino Water Treatment Plant (ACT/New South Wales), Wyndham Water Treatment Plant (Western Australia), Ian Bartlett Water Purification Plant (Victoria), Rocky Creek Water Treatment Plant (Tasmania) and Marian Water Treatment Plant (Queensland).

WIOA Chief Operations Officer Craig Mathisen said the competition was a terrific success.

“We use the national competition to let people know the great work that is going on in local communities around Australia and help shape and secure Australia’s water future,” Craig said.

“Many of us turn on the tap for a drink of water, to cook or take a shower and give little thought to what it takes to operate and maintain the water infrastructure. Many members of the public would be surprised by the complexity and hard work that goes into delivering household water.”

The Richmond Valley Council will represent Australia at the international competition in the United States next month.

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