TasWater dam safety surveillance

Client: TasWater
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Date: 2021-26

Providing a program of surveillance, monitoring and reporting to support compliance and safety

Description

TasWater is the statewide water and sewerage utility for Tasmania, responsible for managing a diverse portfolio of dams, weirs, and lagoons regulated under the Water Management Act 1999 and the Water Management (Safety of Dams) Regulations 2025. These assets span the entire state and include a range of consequence categories.

TasWater ensures that its dam portfolio is appropriately monitored and inspected to support safe operation, compliance with regulation, and alignment with industry practice.

Solution

As part of TasWater’s statewide dam safety program, Entura was engaged under a multi-year contract to deliver comprehensive surveillance, monitoring, and reporting services across TasWater’s southern portfolio of dams.

Throughout the contract, Entura delivered the required surveillance activities for the southern dams as they fell due. This included:

• completing intermediate inspections
• undertaking 5-yearly comprehensive surveillance reviews
• carrying out annual deformation surveys
• performing quarterly piezometer and specialist instrumentation readings and reporting where required
• validating and quality-checking TasWater’s surveillance data
• preparing new and updated dam safety emergency plans and operation and maintenance manuals to meet TasWater templates
• supporting the maintenance of TasWater’s risk-based Dam Safety Program of Works Tool.

Our work was delivered in accordance with TasWater’s milestone framework, including inspection completion targets and draft report submission dates.

All site activities were completed under TasWater’s Authority to Work processes, with appropriate risk assessments for activities such as working at heights, confined space entry, and water-based inspections.

In addition to the scheduled surveillance work, Entura provided:

• minor investigations
• miscellaneous technical advice
• 24-hour on-call dam safety retainer that enabled rapid support when required.

This combination of structured surveillance delivery, responsive technical assistance, and strict safety management strengthened compliance, continuity and long-term asset resilience across the southern portfolio.

In addition to this contract, we delivered a dam safety operator training program for TasWater personnel through our registered training organisation ECEWI (Entura clean energy and water institute). We delivered the program several times over the period to different cohorts of TasWater operators, supporting ongoing capability uplift across the organisation. Training was contextualised to TasWater’s procedures, templates and reporting tools, and delivered through a blend of classroom theory, supervised on-site inspection activities, and workplace-based tasks. Assessment included underpinning knowledge checks, observation of practical skills, completion of TasWater inspection worksheets, and third-party workplace evidence verified by supervisors. This recurring training program strengthened TasWater’s internal capacity to undertake consistent, high-quality dam surveillance and operational activities.

Outcome

Entura’s dam safety team delivered a reliable and comprehensive surveillance program for TasWater’s southern dams, providing validated monitoring data, updated technical documentation, and clear risk-based recommendations.

Through close collaboration with TasWater, the program was completed smoothly within the required milestone framework, ensuring minimal disruption to operational teams and maintaining continuity of surveillance.

The completed inspections, deformation surveys, piezometer readings, and updates to dam safety emergency plans and operation and maintenance manuals aligned the southern portfolio with ANCOLD guidelines and TasWater’s regulatory obligations, giving TasWater a robust foundation for ongoing dam safety management.

Services

• Intermediate inspections and comprehensive reviews
• Deformation surveys
• Piezometer readings and analysis
• DSEP and O&M manual updates
• Minor investigations and 24-hour support
• Dam safety operator training (multiple cohorts)