Mount Isa City Council will begin rolling out smart water meters to residential customers, in an effort to improve water infrastructure and eliminate leaks in the community.
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The $2.5 million project was initiated in 2019 when Mount Isa City Council was granted $1.7 million through the Queensland Government's 2019-21 Local Government Grants and Subsidies Program.
Mayor Danielle Slade said the upgrade would save council money and man hours.
"These are electronic and computerised and are a lot more accurate than the current system," Cr Slade said.
"It will save man hours spent checking the analogue meters, as someone simply needs to drive down the street slowly and it will collect all the data from people's meters.
"This will also stop people putting a magnet on their meter and not paying anything and eliminate those rorting the system."
Cr Slade said council was considering an additional upgrade to the system, which would potentially save residents money
"It would send a notification to your phone stating how much water has been used," Cr Slade said.
"From here locals can define if they have a water leak, or where they can cut costs on water expenses."
Cr Slade said Mount Isa City Council was spending the next year focused on fixing and maintaining water infrastructure within the shire.
"We are losing 36 per cent of our water supply through leaks, on average councils only accept 12 per cent in leaks," she said.
"This is millions of dollars going down the creek, this is money I could be saving on next year in rates bills. It may cost some money in the long haul and it may be four years of fixing it, but it will be a legacy that I can leave when we are not paying $9 million for water, instead we could be paying $7 million.
Cr Slade said the investigations into the location of leaks had already begun.
"When we can figure out where the leaks are, we can fix them. It can't be a band-aid solution we need to fix it properly.
"It's not a sexy thing but it's something that needs doing and a way of saving money."
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