River sources

Several rivers and streams play a role in feeding water into our reservoirs and ground water supplies, but we only draw water directly from the River Murray.

The Murray makes a key contribution to the water security of more than 1.7 million SA Water customers across South Australia. Of our 87 drinking water supply systems, 37 source water either directly or indirectly draw from the river, including 19 water treatment plants located along South Australia’s reaches of the Murray.

How much water we draw from the River Murray varies from year to year, and is largely dependent on the amount of natural inflow into our reservoirs in the Mount Lofty Ranges.

Three major pipelines supply treated water from the River Murray to various regional communities - the Morgan to Whyalla, Swan Reach to Stockwell pipeline and Tailem Bend to Keith pipelines.

The river also supplements metropolitan Adelaide’s reservoirs (with the exception of Myponga Reservoir) via two raw water major pipelines - Murray Bridge to Onkaparinga and Mannum to Adelaide.

You can read more about the Murray's place in SA Water's history here. Visit our River Murray section to see how we are helping to manage the river to make sure it is a sustainable source of water into the future.