With around 10,000 water and sewerage bills issued, Griffith City Council is offering some useful advice to help understand them.
Notices are issued each trimester (three times a year), with Council acknowledging that the bills contain a lot of information.
Griffith City Council Director of Utilities, Graham Gordon, said it is important residents understand what it all means.
“A typical bill has three charges, the Water Consumption Charge, this is the amount of water you use, Water Access Charge and Sewerage Charges which are both fixed fees,” said Mr Gordon.
“Your water bill will show how much water you used between your Previous Water Meter Read and your Current Water Meter Read. The bill also shows how much water you used in the previous period. This will vary depending on the times of year. For example, you would expect higher consumption during the warmer summer months and this latest bill would have been read in January/February.”
Each water bill also has a graph showing the amount of water used for the current billing period (kilolitres) compared to the previous three billing periods.
How is the water usage calculated?
Your water consumption charge is billed with two price steps:
- Up to the first 200 kl is charged at step 1: $0.79 per kilolitre per annum
- Over 200 kl is charged at step 2: $1.68 per kilolitre.
All price details appear on the back of the Water and Sewer notices to assist in understanding how to read your water and sewer account.
Other things to consider:
- It is important not to compare prices with your previous year’s bill as pricing changes every year
- Meters are Council property and will be replaced depending on the age of the meter
- Residential Sewer Access is charged per occupancy (tenancy) including separate Granny Flats
- Vacant blocks of land will be charged a Water Meter Access within 225 metres of the main and Sewer Access if within 75 metres of the main.
