This masthead has campaigned heavily over a number of years for an improved sewage-treatment plant to help prevent raw sewage spilling into the Tamar River.

Mr Hampton’s call-to-arms to the state and federal governments to help fund the company’s $1.8 billion plan couldn’t have come at a better time, with just a handful of days remaining in the federal election campaign.

To the average person, $400 million is a lot of money. That’s the figure TasWater has put on its funding request from the state and federal governments.

But when you consider the 10-year timeframe of its planned infrastructure upgrade, that figure seems much more manageable.

The state government’s share of that figure is $100 million. Over 10 years, that’s just $10 million a year to help pay for much-needed (some would say urgent) infrastructure spending. From a federal perspective, it’s $30 million a year over 10 years.

Mr Hampton described the request as “extraordinarily modest”. That’s an understatement given the severity of the problems we face in Tasmania.

As Mr Hampton pointed out, in 2014-15 only one of TasWater’s 79 EPA regulated sewage treatment plants achieved 100 per cent compliance in terms of discharge limits.

Last month, this masthead broke the story that raw effluent had spilled into the Tamar River from TasWater’s Margaret Street pump station on 1255 occasions in 2014 and 913 occasions in 2015.

And in February, raw sewage found its way on to the streets of Invermay after floodwaters inundated pumping stations.

The worst part is – it’s not the first time that has happened.

Anyone who thinks our aging infrastructure isn’t in desperate need of upgrading needs a severe reality check.

Thankfully, TasWater has come forward to push its case for funding. It can’t do it alone – the task is simply too big. It needs assistance from all levels of government.

It is time for our politicians to step up and make the decisions needed. Having raw sewage being pumped in to our river is simply unacceptable.