By Lia Bichel
SIX months after floods ripped through several homes in the City of Casey, council continues its fight for improved Melbourne Water drainage systems in the municipality.
Casey Council said the lack of capacity of Melbourne Water’s drainage systems had a serious impact during the floods on 4 and 5 February, and about 100 houses were severely impacted as a direct result of waterways inability to cope with the volume of floodwater in the system.
In response to the damage caused, the council made a submission to the Parliament of Victoria Environment and Natural Resources Committee Inquiry into Flood Mitigation Infrastructure in Victoria.
The council is asking Melbourne Water to increase maintenance activities on its waterways in Casey to ensure they can operate at their maximum flow capacity in times of large rainfall events to safeguard the safety, homes and livelihoods of Casey residents.
City of Casey mayor Shar Balmes said the inquiry was an opportunity to highlight an issue which severely impacted the community.
“Melbourne Water’s current maintenance schedule in Casey allows the drains to become overgrown, which adversely impacts on their maximum flow capacity.
“In addition, the City of Casey is concerned that Melbourne Water’s current flood predictions and modelling is inadequate. The municipality is growing, rapidly, and, coupled with the increased storm and weather activity anticipated due to changes in our climate, flood events like those seen in February are likely to happen more regularly.”
But Melbourne Water Regional manager for South East David Norman said Melbourne Water invested $17m a year in maintaining and inspecting the drainage system and committed the same amount each year to building new drainage infrastructure.
He said Melbourne’s drainage system was built to national standards and “generally does a very good job.”
“We saw in excess of a one-in-500-year storm in some parts of Melbourne in February 2011,” he said.
Mr Norman said Melbourne Water was currently in discussion with the council about how the Casey drainage system performs and how they could work together to improve it.
City of Casey Council’s submission has a number of recommendations including having the Victorian Government, through Melbourne Water fund develop and implement mitigation measures and undertake urgent maintenance on its drainage system and that the Victorian Government designate Melbourne Water as the single body responsible for co-ordinating drainage system management for all drainage.
Residents wanting to share their experiences, thoughts or comments about the February floods or drainage in the City of Casey are urged to visit Casey Council’s community consultation portal, Casey Conversations at www.casey.vic.gov.au/caseyconversations.
