Wet weather

Storms and heavy rainfall

Large weather events can impact our water and wastewater network if:

Power outages affect water pumps and boosters, interrupting your water supply.
Stormwater flows into the sewerage system, resulting in heavily diluted sewage discharging through maintenance holes and other overflow points.

When this occurs, it can affect you and your home. To help keep you safe, we want you to:

Be aware of what may happen and what you may see during wet weather.
Understand how you can prepare your home, in case of a weather event.
Should a wet weather event occur, we want you to take the appropriate steps, depending on the impact.

Understand what happens during an overflow

Our wastewater network is designed to take minor additional flows during wet weather, however during storms, cyclones and heavy rain, our wastewater network can be overloaded with large volumes of stormwater.

When the rain is heavy enough to overwhelm the stormwater network, spilling over into the wastewater network, it can cause overflows.

This means you may see wastewater overflowing at designated overflow points along the network, in some cases they occur at maintenance holes or on private property. These wet weather overflows are highly diluted as they are mostly rainwater.

Find out what to do if there’s an overflow in your house, yard or street:

Follow these steps to prepare your home ahead of wet weather

STEP 1: Check your overflow relief gully (ORG)

An ORG is a grate located outside your home (sometimes near your laundry) which helps to prevent sewage overflows into your home. If there is a sewer blockage, the cover of the ORG should either pop off or upwards to release excess pressure and direct sewage away from your home.

Steps to take:

Make sure grate is loose and not blocked
Remove any objects, including pot plants, from the top of the ORG grate
Ensure the ORG sits high enough that stormwater does not drain into it.
Make sure your downpipes aren't connected to your ORG.
If your ORG is too low, or your downpipes are connected to the ORG then please call a licensed plumber.

Get ORGanised before storm season

STEP 2: Check your downpipes

During periods of heavy rain, storm water can enter the sewerage system. To help minimise this, we need to keep roof and gutter downpipes separate from the sewerage system, as an overloaded sewerage system increases the chance of a sewage overflow on your property.

Ahead of wet weather inspect your property to clear your gutters and check for dangerous tree branches, please also check that your downpipes are connected properly.

Some older houses may have their downpipes connected to the sewerage network rather than the storm water. Check your downpipes as they should not connect to the Overflow Relief Gully (ORG).

Find out what to look for

STEP 3: Avoid backwashing your pool

Backwashing is a process where the flow of water in a pool is reversed and then expelled into the wastewater system. It’s usually done to clean the pool filter as part of general pool maintenance, or to reduce pool levels during repairs and maintenance.

Backwashing is generally recommended to be done at least monthly to help expel debris, products and oils (such as sunscreen residue) which can clog the filter.

When should you backwash your pool?

Backwashing is best done during dry periods, when the pool is in normal operation and the wastewater system is operating at normal capacity.

When it rains you will see a lot of water around your property and streets, which is all the rain entering the storm water network. During heavy rain or a large wet weather event, some of this rainfall can make its way into our wastewater network and exceed normal capacity.

It is best not to backwash a pool either immediately before, after or during rain or storm events because of the extra water already in both the stormwater and wastewater networks.

Pool overflow water during wet weather is highly diluted and mainly rainwater. It is generally safe to be allowed to flow onto the surrounding ground or stormwater system during rain, rather than being directed to the wastewater system.

STEP 4: Store drinking water

In case of a water outage, try to keep at least three days’ supply of fresh water in bottles. Aim for roughly 10 litres per person, per three days.

You can check for outages on our outage map.

Check for outages

Children filling water bottles at kitchen sink

STEP 5: Know how to turn off water supply

Make sure you can access your water meter and you know how to turn off water supply in an emergency.

Find out how to locate your water meter and stop tap and learn how to keep them clear.

Learn how to turn off your stop tap

Water meter in grass showing how to turn the stop tap off

What to do during a weather event

When an incident occurs, it’s important to:

Check out our water outage map.
Report any water or wastewater faults online.
Update your phone number in My Account so we can send you SMS alerts when needed.
Follow us on Facebook and stay up to date with any major event news.
To rectify any damage caused by water or wastewater overflows, simply follow the steps outlined in our property damage guide.

What you can do inside

Pipe blockages usually start to happen long before you realise it, with the blockage becoming worse over time.

But there are some simple things you can do inside your home to avoid blockages, saving you money on plumbing bills and helping you to avoid messy clean-ups:

Bin wet wipes Love your loo Think at the sink