Water board merger 'possible'

The admission comes in the wake of proposed water and sewerage price hikes by the three water companies - Ben Lomond Water, Cradle Mountain Water and Southern Water, whose administrative functions are performed by a separate company, Onstream.

Under the proposed price plan, many Ben Lomond Water customers face a $100-a-year increase in charges to a target tariff of $949 from July 2012. That target would rise by 6 per cent each year until 2015.

Tasmanian Water and Sewerage Corporation chairman Miles Hampton said there was scope to possibly move to one corporation.

"Once we are up and running and done a lot of the capital works, then down the track it may be quite sensible to become one corporation," Mr Hampton said.

"Obviously the government and the council owners would have to agree."

He said the three boards were implemented at the request of the councils and it would have been an enormous task to initially establish one body with 29 councils. Mr Hampton said generally speaking, the infrastructure taken over from the councils by the three boards when they formed was deteriorating.

Opposition Leader Will Hodgman said the axing of the three Tasmanian water boards could save the state government $20 million over four years. "Under our plan, Onstream would be abolished, and the three existing corporations will be merged into one body, with three regional divisions," Mr Hodgman said.

"Each regional division would keep its own revenues for the first five years to ensure regional discrepancies in capital works and pricing mechanisms can be fixed."

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