The Brumby Government has failed again to improve the quality of Victoria’s drinking water, with water suppliers detecting E.coli, aluminium and dangerous parasites in supplies between 2007 and 2008.

Shadow Minister for Health Helen Shardey said Victoria’s poor water quality was putting Victorian families at risk.

The Annual report on drinking water quality in Victoria 2007-08 released today by the Department of Human Services details 195 water quality alerts the same number of threats as the previous year.

The report found:

· Parks Victoria’s Lakeside-Candlebark Campground in the Lake Eildon National Park continues to harbour E. coli, and has done so for three out of the last four years.

· Evidence of Cryptosporidium a nasty parasite that caused the contamination of Sydney’s water supply in 1998 at Altona.

· Taste and odour issues at various locations including Emerald, Monbulk, Silvan, Dandenong and Brighton.

· E. coli cultivating at Cranbourne, Seaford, Bonbeach, Rosebud, Kooweerup, Upper Beaconsfield, Mt Eliza, Nar Nar Goon, Noble Park, Wallan, Emerald, Gembrook, Warranwood, Doncaster, Werribee South and Warburton, and a very high level reading at Monbulk in March 2008.

In January 2008 Kalorama Reservoir near Monbulk recorded E. coli readings that were worse than Melbourne’s Yarra River, Mrs Shardey said.

There is something very wrong with the Brumby Government when for two years it has failed to address recurring water quality issues.

The Brumby Government is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to build a pipeline from drought-stricken northern Victoria which won’t have access to any water while Victorians are facing potential health issues.

With the failure of Health Minister Daniel Andrews to manage our hospitals, waiting lists and emergency wards, the last thing Victorian hospitals need is the pressure of an E. Coli outbreak in our drinking water.

The provision of pure, safe water is the most basic service taxpayers expect the government to deliver. The Brumby Government must fix the fundamentals and put the health of Victorian families first, Mrs Shardey said.