SA Water is making progress on a backlog of applications to help speed up housing development approvals.


Last week The SE Voice reported that SA Water was experiencing delays in processing approvals.


An SA Water spokesperson last week told The SE Voice said the existing infrastructure in Mount Gambier was able to meet customer demands.


The spokesperson said the government entity was creating a 30-year master plan for the town’s wastewater network to cater for more development applications as demand increased.


“As a result of the rapid, unprecedented housing growth across South Australia – including in Mount Gambier – and subsequent requests for new water and wastewater services, we acknowledge our capacity to process applications has been impacted,” the spokesperson said last week.


“SA Water assure developers we’re working as quickly as possible to provide accurate, timely advice on servicing solutions to their developments.”


SA Water provided an update to The SE Voice at the end of last week, which included some promising details.


“To help progress several active housing developments in Mount Gambier, we have recently completed an assessment of our wastewater network to understand its capacity to support the connection of proposed new houses,” an SA Water spokesperson said.


“Pleasingly, this has now resulted in agreements for four developments – including Limestone Estate – to progress to their next stages with certainty of water and wastewater services.


“We’re also working with a number of other local developers to understand servicing solutions to their proposed developments and will keep them informed as our investigations progress.


“Importantly, we’re continuing to accept and review all development applications as per our usual process, with 135 new residential houses approved for construction in Mount Gambier during the past 12 months.”