Friends of Latrobe Water (FLoW) recently submitted our response to Infrastructure Victoria’s Draft 30-Year Infrastructure Strategy. Along with our colleagues at the Concerned Waterways Alliance (CWA), we’ve highlighted critical concerns about the future of Victoria’s rivers and water infrastructure that we believe must be addressed if we are to secure a sustainable water future for our region.
The State of Our Rivers: A Gippsland Reality Check
Here in Gippsland, we see firsthand what’s happening to our Latrobe River system. It faces multiple competing demands—from coal mine rehabilitation to irrigation, recreation, environmental flows and cultural uses. The whole system is over-allocated, with huge stresses on groundwater. The Morwell River alone provides approximately 25% of surface water inflows to the Latrobe River, yet current planning fails to account for potential losses of these inflows due to impacts of mining and the required post-closure rehabilitation.
This is not just a Gippsland issue. Across Victoria, rivers including the Yarra, Murray Darling, Moorabool and Barwon are heavily over-allocated, with many experiencing summer dry-outs, fish deaths and broader ecological collapse. As we face a drying climate and growing population demands, our waterways are approaching an existential crisis point.
Climate-Independent Water Sources: Necessary but Not Sufficient
We strongly support Infrastructure Victoria’s emphasis on climate-independent water sources. Desalination, recycled water and greater stormwater capture are essential components of a resilient water future. However, these new sources must not only meet future demand but also help restore our already degraded river systems.
The reality is that water security requires more than just new sources—it requires restoring health to our existing waterways. Any investment in water augmentation must deliver an explicit ecological dividend, particularly through natural flow returns for our stressed rivers.
Our Biggest Concern: Aging Wastewater Treatment Infrastructure
While the draft strategy addresses many important issues, we believe it overlooks what may be the most pressing water infrastructure challenge: Victoria’s aging wastewater treatment plants. Many facilities continue to discharge large volumes of inadequately treated effluent into rivers already experiencing declining flows.
This is particularly concerning for waterways like our Latrobe River, where these discharges can now make up a significant portion of flow in summer and autumn, fundamentally altering water quality, temperature and ecological function.
Upgrading these facilities is essential for both human and environmental health, even if they aren’t the kind of flashy projects that politicians typically want to showcase. Without addressing this fundamental infrastructure need, other water quality initiatives will have limited impact.
The Funding Question: Who Should Pay?
A central question that remains unanswered in the strategy is how to fund the necessary infrastructure upgrades. We believe it’s false economics to suggest that input credits from consumptive use can fund large-scale investments. The current approach keeps water prices artificially low across the board and has contributed to chronic under-investment in Victoria’s water infrastructure.
We must ask: Should water corporations bear the whole cost, or should it be shared between multiple stakeholders including state and federal governments? We believe the latter approach makes more sense, particularly for essential infrastructure that benefits all Victorians.
The Latrobe Valley Mine Rehabilitation Challenge
One issue we’ve been particularly focused on is mine rehabilitation in the Latrobe Valley. We had to file Freedom of Information requests to obtain data on alternative water supplies and costings, discovering that recycled water is all technically feasible, but miners currently get river and ground water for free other than infrastructure costs.
Water fill from river water without cost per megalitre is not sustainable given all factors considered over a 30-year extraction period from the Latrobe River. Our river is already in terminal decline, impacting downstream assets like the Ramsar listed Gippsland Lakes. The potential cost factors over this time for social, economic and environmental impacts from a losing river are enormous. These are the costs which will not be borne by the miners but instead shouldered by the community and taxpayer down the track.
The river system simply cannot sustain this amount of extraction over 30 years. We need flexibility in the current rehabilitation water licensing process, and Infrastructure Victoria must plan for better ways to use recycled water to protect our flow-stressed rivers.
The Community Education Gap
We’ve also observed a significant knowledge gap among Victorians about water issues. Too many people believe the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant is a “white elephant” that has never been used for Melbourne’s drinking water. In reality, before the recent floods, the plant had an essential role in providing Melbourne’s drinking water for three years.
For the draft to propose a 50% increase in the plant’s capacity may face pushback from an uninformed community. The simple truth is that the community is not water literate and remains largely unaware of how population growth impacts potable water supplies.
Similarly, there’s clear evidence that Geelong cannot continue to rely on water from Melbourne catchments for drinking water. Significant responsible planning needs to occur now in the face of rapidly increasing population pressures.
Victorian Desalitation plant in Wonthaggi is the largest desalination plant in Australia. Photo: DEECA
The Need for Integrated Water Management
We believe the key to addressing these challenges lies in proper investment in Integrated Water Management (IWM) projects. Central government funding is essential to initiate priority projects already identified in numerous IWM plans. Without this investment, little progress will be made.
For stormwater specifically, the current lack of investment in planning and implementation of infrastructure to facilitate capture at a local and precinct scale is leading to missed opportunities and will increase future costs.
Working Together for Victoria’s Water Future
As a community advocacy group based in Gippsland, we’re committed to facilitating a positive post-coal mining legacy for the future social and economic prosperity of our region. This means safeguarding and protecting our community and surrounding environment, including the Latrobe River, or Durt’Yowan as it known to the Gunaikurnai peoples, that contributes freshwater flows to the Ramsar-listed Gippsland Lakes.
But we can’t do this alone. We need a coordinated approach that brings together community groups, water authorities and all levels of government. We need transparent planning processes that honestly address the challenges we face. And we need significant investment in both new water sources and modernising existing infrastructure.
Time for Bold Action
The message from our submission is clear: Victoria can no longer afford to delay investment in climate-independent water sources and modern treatment infrastructure. Strengthening river resilience in the face of climate change is not optional; it is critical.
The health of our rivers, the sustainability of our water supply and the well being of our communities all depend on making the right infrastructure decisions now. As our submission makes clear, the time for half-measures and political caution has passed. Victoria’s water future demands bold action and significant investment—starting today.
This blog post represents the views of Friends of Latrobe Water (FLoW) regarding Infrastructure Victoria’s draft 30-Year Infrastructure Strategy, May 2025. Some points are shared with the broader Concerned Waterways Alliance, of which we are a member.