Water down the drain

ABOUT 100,000 litres of water went down the drain on Tuesday when a water main burst in Narre Warren South.
The precious resource went to waste from about 11am when a construction worker driving an excavator hit the pipe.
Concerned local Bill Schulz said the water flowed at the corner of Dorchester Drive and Charmouth Place for just over two hours before it was shut down.
“There is water pretty much everywhere,” Mr Schulz said. “It probably flows for about 250 metres right down to the bottom of the bike track.”
Mr Schulz said workers were installing new water pipes next to the track when the incident happened.
Residents from the surrounding area were without water until about 3.30pm when the damage was repaired.
South East Water media adviser Luke Enright said it took a crew about 35 minutes to get out to the site.
“We were conducting some works in the area and inadvertently hit a water main that burst,” Mr Enright said.
He said in the present drought climate they “were very concerned about any water loss”.
“Over the past couple of months our call outs (for burst pipes) have been right down,” he said.