Melbourne Sewerage Strategy

The Melbourne Sewerage Strategy is an ambitious 50-year strategy that has been developed collaboratively with Melbourne’s water retailers – City West Water, South East Water, Western Water and Yarra Valley Water.

Together, as Melbourne’s water industry, we will ensure that Greater Melbourne’s sewerage system provides valuable services to the community in the future as it does today.

The Melbourne Sewerage Strategy therefore sets the direction for wastewater management in Melbourne for future generations:

• enabling key decisions to be made that ensures the system will adapt and change in response to future challenges and opportunities
• outlining where policy and regulation can enable us to achieve our vision for 2070
• providing a framework to facilitate timely decision-making that progressively moves us towards achieving our vision and goals.

The strategy explores the sewerage system’s role in a water sensitive city and in Melbourne’s waste management, outlining how the system will be managed to enhance its contribution to public health and the environment, and provide valued and affordable services to the community in the future.

Our vision

Melbourne’s sewerage system has the potential to deliver enhanced value through contributing to our city’s liveability. To do this, our vision is for:

A resilient and adaptable system that supports thriving, healthy communities and a liveable, flourishing environment.

Our goals

Although aspirational, our goals are underpinned by the fundamental principle of ensuring affordability for our customers and community. By 2070, key features of our sewerage system will help to achieve the following goals:

• enhance human health and wellbeing
• enhance the environment
• leverage resources
• foster community stewardship
• an enabling policy and regulatory environment.

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