The State Government announced its long awaited water strategy this week. Mark Beyer spoke to the new chairman of the Water Corporation, who will be a key driver of the strategy.
The State Government announced its long awaited water strategy this week. Mark Beyer spoke to the new chairman of the Water Corporation, who will be a key driver of the strategy.
THE appointment of Tim Ungar as Water Corporation chairman on January 1 passed with little comment but was nevertheless a decisive move by a government keen to find solutions to the State’s water crisis.
Mr Ungar has signalled big changes at the Water Corporation, where he wants to foster a ‘can do’ culture more receptive to new ideas.
This cultural shift could prove to be just as important as the Gallop Government’s formal water strategy.
While Mr Ungar is supportive of the Water Corporation’s current management, he sees substantial scope for improvement.
“The corporation needs to be more embracing of a range of views,” Mr Ungar said.
“I’ve said to management you can start with a blank sheet of paper. There is a new board and we are open to looking at new ideas and new solutions.”
The appointment of Mr Ungar and three new directors earlier this year (see story, right) represents a generational shift at the Water Corporation.
Mr Ungar’s predecessor, Peter Jones, was not only chairman for the past seven years, he was also the architect of the water industry’s current corporate and regulatory structure.
Mr Ungar, 47, brings a new perspective. His background is in the telecommunications industry, at Telstra, ERG and Telecommunications Services Australia.
He also has broad political and business connections – as chairman of the State Government’s business roundtable and as a member of the WA Museum Foundation Board, which counts some of Perth’s best-known business figures among its members.
Mr Ungar sees a common thread linking his work background with the Water Corporation.
He describes them all as service companies that need to be customer focused and responsive.
His initial view is that the Water Corporation has an “incredibly sound base”.
“Customer service is good but that can always be improved. There isn’t a business in Australia that can’t be improved,” Mr Ungar said.
He said he had inherited a “robust” corporate structure, and offered full credit to Peter Jones for that. But Mr Ungar will not be content to let the Water Corporation quietly meander along.
His vision for the corporation can be summed up by three phrases he uses often: “proactive”, “open” and “on the front foot”.
He hopes the release of the State Government’s water strategy will be a turning point.
“The water strategy will provide an opportunity for the Water Corporation to put itself back at the forefront of the water debate in a constructive way,” Mr Ungar said.
“It has a huge amount of knowledge and experience. It’s done lots of R&D.
“It needs to let people know that it does have solutions and will be more proactive.”
Mr Ungar also wants the corporation to be more proactive in its dealings with other regulatory agencies, to ensure that bureaucratic roadblocks do not stand in the way of desirable outcomes.
“We should work with them, facilitate discussions and share knowledge to get decisions made faster,” he said.
“We need to be respectful but also proactive to achieve a result.”
One of Mr Ungar’s first initiatives was to institute a review of the Water Corporation’s capital spending program, which has averaged nearly $400 million a year over the past five years.
Mr Ungar indicated that simply spending more money on extra water sources was not a satisfactory solution to Perth’s water issues.
“The solution will be science rather than source driven,” he said.
He noted that the Water Corporation has already done a “huge amount of work” to make the existing infrastructure more effective.
An example was the $275 million Stirling-Harvey redevelopment scheme. While a major component of this project was the Harvey Dam, it also involved the building of new pumping stations and a new pipeline to Rockingham.
This was part of the ‘inter-connected’ system that the Water Corporation has built in the State’s South West.
Mr Ungar sees water as a ‘triple bottom line’ industry, which means the Water Corporation needs to balance financial, social and environmental issues.
He believes more can be done in areas such as recycling, re-use of greywater and treatment of waste-water.
The Water Corporation has already taken action in some of these areas, most notably through the recently completed $150 million upgrade of the Woodman Point wastewater treatment plant.
It also plans a $20 million water recycling plant at Kwinana, so that some industrial users can switch from scheme water to recycled water.
