Wintry weather has delayed maintenance work by a few weeks on the 28 metre-high SA Water concrete storage tank in Millicent.
The $300,000 project will see the tank’s walls, roof and internal and external pipework refurbished, helping secure reliable water services for local customers.
At this stage, the work is now expected to be completed in early to mid July.
There has been no interruption to the SA Water customers’ water supply during the project which is part of a statewide maintenance program.
For around 25 years, the water tower on high ground near Millicent Hospital has hosted mobile phone base stations for major carriers.
“For the past few weeks Telstra’s 3G and 4G mobile network in Millicent has been operating using temporary antennas situated at a site alongside the former train station in Railway Terrace,” Telstra spokesman Chris Marks said.
“Normally our antennas are located on the side of the local water tower, but in recent weeks SA Water has been undertaking maintenance at this site and we have had to turn them off.
“We had hoped to have our normal site back in operation by mid-June, but have been advised by SA Water that work is still ongoing due to some weather delays and we now anticipate a return to normal service by early to mid-July.
“While our temporary Railway Terrace site is providing comparable Telstra 3G and 4G coverage, we know our 5G network users have been impacted and hope to have our technicians on site activating the equipment as soon as we can.”
Meanwhile, an Aboriginal-owned project management business Zancott Knight has been engaged by SA Water to deliver the $300,000 concrete water storage tank upgrade at Millicent and another at Marla.
Based in Adelaide and with operations across Australia, SA Water spokesperson Amanda Lewry said supporting Aboriginal businesses such as Zancott Knight was one of the many initiatives embedding reconciliation across the organisation.
“As a large employer and purchaser, we have a role to play in sharing with our own people and the wider industry, the importance of investing in local Aboriginal businesses and services,” Ms Lewry said.
“Providing a diverse range of opportunities for businesses to deliver work across our asset portfolio is one of the actions we are taking to foster meaningful progress on our journey towards reconciliation and support Aboriginal communities.
“During the past 12 months, our direct procurement from Aboriginal businesses and indirect procurement via our contractors, achieved a total spend of more than $2.2m – placing us firmly on the path to reaching a key goal of our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan for 2020-23.
“We are pleased to be working together with Zancott Knight, who included additional value as part of their tender by engaging local contractors to support the delivery of each tank upgrade.”
