Perth Voice Interactive

BRUNO MRKIC is tired of drinking the dirty water that comes from his tap.

The Mount Lawley man says he pays first-rate fees for water but gets a third-world product. Two months ago he was getting consistently murky water every morning for days in a row.

Getting on the phone to Water Corporation results in the usual game of phone tennis, with no result.

Eventually the water seemed to clear so he let it go, but on Monday the brown water was back with a vengeance and he had no luck getting through on the hotline.

“My wife’s just done a whites wash and it’s all gone yellow,” he tells the Voice. “It’s almost the colour of Lucozade.”

The Water Corp says an “outage” from a leak in Yokine caused the discolouring, and reckons Mr Mkric’s earlier problems could’ve been down to a sudden increase in local water use a couple months back, which can stir up the sludge.

Perth regional manager Mike Andrews says it’s harmless sediment: “However, we understand discoloured water is unappealing, so bottled water was made available for affected customers.”

The corporation has apologised and is keen to make good on any washing that turned the colour of tea, inviting the brown-clothed to call the faults line on 13 13 75: “A laundry cleaning agent is available for customers if their washing is affected by discoloured water, which is delivered within two hours of Water Corporation receiving the request,” he said.

Mr Mrkic says he’ll try to get some—if he can get through.

by DAVID BELL