The coronavirus (COVID-19) and your water and sewerage services

30 Mar 2020

Barwon Water’s priority is to continue to deliver essential water and sewerage services and ensure the health and safety of our community and employees.

Please rest assured that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic doesn’t threaten the continuity and quality of services Barwon Water provides.

We are taking all necessary steps to ensure the health of our community and staff and the continuity of our service.

Some of these steps include:

  • activating a Pandemic Incident Management Team and our business continuity plans
  • promoting and enforcing good hand hygiene practices to all employees
  • implementing mandatory social distancing measures.

Customer support

We are assisting our customers that may be financially impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19). If you would like to discuss payment support options, please call us on 1300 656 007.

To enable us to continue to provide our essential service we have taken the precautionary step to close our customer counter until further notice. This will help minimise the risk of the coronavirus spreading so staff can continue to deliver services.

We do want to help you however we can and ask that you contact us via 1300 656 007 or email.

We have also created a web page to inform our customers and community about coronavirus (COVID-19), in relation to drinking water and our position as a water utility.

Your water supply

Drinking water supplied by Barwon Water is treated and safe to drink. There is no evidence that drinking water will be affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) or that it is transmitted in drinking water.

Our water treatment and disinfection facilities are designed to remove or inactivate the most resistant pathogens from the water supply, including viruses like coronavirus (COVID-19).

There is no need to buy bottled water. As usual, the water supplied to your home or business is treated and safe to drink.

Sewerage system and service

There is no evidence that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is transmissible via wastewater systems. Existing disinfection methods at sewerage treatment plants are expected to be sufficient to inactivate coronavirus (COVID-19).

We will continue to treat sewage to the relevant guidelines and standards to protect public health and the environment. This includes best practices for protecting the occupational health of workers at treatment facilities.

Barwon Water is also reminding customers that toilet paper is the only true flushable. Any other paper product (tissues, wet wipes, napkins, paper towel) must not be flushed and belong in the bin. This is a serious issue as sewer pipes can become blocked which can lead to raw sewage spilling out into streets or creeks, or even people’s properties.

Critical maintenance

As an essential service, we often have necessary maintenance to carry out to ensure you get the water and sewerage services you need and expect.

If Barwon Water or Barwon Asset Solutions staff knock on your door or approach you in the street as part of essential work they are undertaking, be reassured that they have a particular focus on health and safety checks and are taking all necessary steps to manage the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, including social distancing and practising good hand hygiene as advised by state and federal authorities.

Community events

As part of our response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, we have also postponed any events we were planning to host or attend until further notice, and thank you for your understanding on these and other actions we have taken.

We have developed some information for our customers and community about coronavirus (COVID-19), in relation to drinking water and our position as a water utility.

For the latest health information from the Victorian Government, please visit:

Victorian Department of Health and Human Services: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Stay safe and well.