About us

ABOUT US Our purpose is to enable the sustainable growth of the region and the life our communities desire, by providing high quality, affordable services.

Hunter Water serves a population of more than 600,000 people in homes and businesses across the Lower Hunter. We provide stormwater services to about one third of our water and wastewater customers. We also provide trade wastewater, recycled water and raw water services. Hunter Water’s area of operations is 5,366 square kilometres and includes the local government areas of Cessnock, Dungog, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Newcastle, Port Stephens and a small part of Singleton. We collaborate with stakeholders, advocacy groups and all levels of government so that together we can achieve value for money for our customers and community. Hunter Water is owned by the NSW Government. The Hunter Water Act 1991 and State Owned Corporations Act 1989 established Hunter Water and set out our principal functions. Our proud roots go back to the 1880s when water was first delivered to Newcastle from a temporary pumping station on the Hunter River at Oakhampton via the Newcastle No 1 Reservoir. Like our region, we have grown considerably since then, and we are constantly looking for new ways to provide exceptional services, enable good development and be innovative. We are committed to being a great employer that operates in an efficient and productive manner, enhancing the wellbeing of our employees. The safety of our people and communities is our highest priority. That includes the safety of Hunter Water’s drinking water, which is paramount and confirmed through an extensive monitoring program. We have 68 sampling locations across our drinking water network and routinely test for a wide range of physical, chemical and biological characteristics at all stages of the supply system. We carefully monitor and treat our wastewater to ensure that we protect the environment. The Office of Environment and Heritage’s Beachwatch program confirms we have some of the best beaches and swimming sites in New South Wales, with our waterways clean and safe to use. Our employees provide services to our customers by building, operating and maintaining a portfolio of water, wastewater, recycled water and stormwater assets with a value of more than $2.9 billion. Together we are building our water resilience capabilities and ensuring a sustainable water future.

Our vision is to be a valued partner in delivering the aspirations for our region.

Five values define who we are as an organisation and how we behave.

SPOTLIGHT Our year in review

Loving Water together

Our customers embraced Love Water and water restrictions to help conserve our most precious resource. Together, homes and businesses in the region used 15% less water than forecast, equivalent to the consumption of 52,000 homes, saving millions of litres for the future.

COVID-19 support - all in this together

The impacts of the pandemic have been far reaching. We quickly transitioned to new ways of working to keep our people and communities safe while delivering essential services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We moved services online so that people could continue to do business with us remotely and worked with customers to deliver more than 1,500 tailored assistance plans to those in hardship.

Lower bills and record investment

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal released its determination on our prices for the next four years, with a typical Hunter Water household bill to fall by $48 per year. It also gave the green light to our $653 million investment in infrastructure, technology and service improvements.

Achieving greater diversity and inclusion

We launched our first Reconciliation Action Plan to support our work to improve economic, health and social outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We also made significant gains in diversity and inclusion, including increasing female board membership to 50%.

Making it easier to do business with us

We launched our new website, increased online developer services, delivered outreach events virtually and extended our social media reach to allow customers more choice and flexibility in connecting with us than ever before. We have a 96% customer satisfaction rate.

Reducing water loss across the network

We cut water leakage by 13%, with a cumulative reduction of 34% over the last three years. We surveyed 100% of our network for leaks, implemented smart technologies and increased recycled water schemes and dual reticulation.

Our contact centre named the best

The CX Mystery Shopping Program named Hunter Water best in sector for 2019-20 among 23 water utilities. The nationallyrecognised measure evaluated 30 aspects of our customer service.

Drought and long term water planning

Water restrictions took effect in September 2019 in response to the worst drought on record for New South Wales. As prolonged dry conditions saw our dams dip to their lowest in almost 40 years, we continued work with the NSW Government, stakeholders, customers and our community to develop the Lower Hunter Water Security Plan, expected to be released in 2021.

Building for the future

We delivered major infrastructure improvements including commencing the sewering of Wyee township, replacing an eight kilometre section of the major Chichester Trunk Gravity Main, and completing the Central Coast inter-regional water transfer scheme to increase drought resilience for both regions.

Driving sustainability

We furthered our commitment to progress the Sustainable Development Goals and joined City of Newcastle’s SDG Collaborative Group. Hunter Water is also a member of the Hunter Region SDG Task Force.