‘Backflow’ occurs when the normal flow of clean water from our water main into your house or business is reversed, and the ‘used’ water from your property flows back into the clean water supply.
Backflow poses a serious risk to public health and safety. It can pollute our shared water supply, and cause severe illness, injury, or fatalities.
As a property owner or tenant, you may be held liable if backflow from your property impacts people, our infrastructure or nearby properties.
To maintain the safety and quality of our water supply, you must:
- register your property for backflow prevention
- install, register, test and maintain backflow prevention devices.
When backflow prevention devices are required at a property, you must agree to test and maintain the devices annually, and report the results to Barwon Water. This is your backflow prevention agreement.
Register a property for backflow prevention
Check if you need backflow prevention
Engage an accredited backflow prevention plumber to evaluate your property's backflow hazard rating and prevention requirements.
Most industrial and commercial sites (e.g., chemical plants, hospitals, caravan parks, swimming pools) and some residential properties are rated medium to high risk.
Properties with a medium to high risk rating need to install backflow prevention devices. These devices protect the water supply by stopping water from flowing backward into our pipes.
You have 3 months from the date of assessment to install backflow prevention devices.
Register a property for backflow prevention
All properties requiring backflow prevention must be registered with Barwon Water.
Use this form to register a property for a new or pre-existing backflow prevention agreement.
Register a property for backflow prevention
Before you start
In the form, you must provide the:
- property address
- property owner or tenant details
- maintenance contact details (if different from owner or tenant)
- plumber details.
If our records indicate an existing backflow prevention agreement, we'll ask you to confirm this.
Application fee
There is no application fee for this service.
Response time
For new agreements, registration is immediate.
If you already have a backflow prevention agreement for another property, please allow up to 10 working days for the new property to be added.
Install, register and test backflow prevention devices
When you register a property for backflow prevention, we will send your plumber a link to install, register and test the backflow prevention devices. If a different plumber is responsible for the initial testing they will also receive this email.
Property owners are responsible for organising suitably qualified plumbers to:
- install and register backflow prevention devices
- test and maintain backflow prevention devices.
