Logan residents are paying more than most others in Australia for their water service, despite households recording among the lowest water usage in the country, a new analysis has found.
This, along with longer-than-usual interruptions to water supply, has been blamed for Logan Water being rated one of Australia’s “worst-balanced” water utilities.
The analysis led by business All Kind Gas and Plumbing, of the most recent national water utilities report, found that Logan Water was the seventh worst at providing water with “high-quality services and fair prices”.
Of the country’s water utilities that service a population of 100,000 people or more, Logan Water was ranked the first worst.
The analysis ranked utilities based on a range of factors including average annual residential water supplied to properties, annual bills, unplanned supply interruptions, and water and sewer breaks.
In areas like water and sewer breaks, Logan ranked among the best in the country with less than 3.5 water main breaks per 100km.
In comparison, Hobart was 12.2 times higher with 42.8 breaks.
However, the average duration of unplanned supply interruptions in Logan – which came out to about 254 minutes in 2024 – was the fifth worst in Australia.
And while the city’s average annual water bill is cheaper than our neighbours, sitting at around $1642, it is about $35 more expensive than the national average.
Of all the major utilities, Logan proves to be $300 more expensive.
According to All Kind’s analysis and the national report, Logan residents pay above average prices but use the sixth-lowest amount of water per household, at an average 134 kL supplied per property.
This is the lowest residential water usage of all major utilities in Australia, for the fifth year in a row.
However, Logan City Council argues residential water supply is not an indicator of cost/value ratio.
“… but shows our community has strong water-saving behaviours, which helps protect our region’s precious drinking water supplies,” a council spokesperson said.
“Water bills are higher in south-east Queensland due to the cost of bulk water in our region following the investment in climate-resilient infrastructure during the Millennium Drought.”
The spokesperson said there was an increase in the average duration of unplanned water interruptions due to “one outage in May 2024 which took longer to repair due to the complexity of the job”.
According to the national water utilities report, this “large interruption” impacted about 100 customers over an extended period of time.
“Logan’s water network had the lowest number of water main breaks per 100km of the major water utilities in Australia,” the council spokesperson said.
“We have crews on standby 24/7 to respond to any unplanned outages and restore water to customers as quickly as possible.
“Logan has a safe and reliable water and sewerage network which services more than 126,000 homes and businesses in our region.”
Logan Water has in the past been described by mayor Jon Raven as possessing “state-of-the-art” facilities, with a situation room that can monitor the city’s entire network in real time.
This situation room is also used to monitor parts of Gold Coast council’s network.
This financial year, Logan council is investing $138.5 million in essential water and sewerage infrastructure to “meet the needs of our growing community”.
