The $600,000 upgrade of the township's water supply has been completedRoxburgh community board chairman Stephen Jeffery said the problem of meeting drinking water standards and having to post boil-water notices for the village was "something we thought would never be solved".
He said the board investigated upgrade options for four years "but everything was too expensive".
Previously, water for the village was pumped from the Clutha River and treated at the village. However, every time there was rain or any other significant weather event, the water became dirty and boil-water notices had to be issued, at a cost of thousands of dollars per year.
Last year the board chose the option of piping treated water from Roxburgh, 8km downstream. It was initially more expensive than the alternative option of upgrading the Lake Roxburgh water treatment plant, but the board believed it would be cheaper in the long term.
With a Ministry of Health grant and Central Otago District Council funding, the Roxburgh water treatment plant was upgraded to meet new drinking water standards.
Water is now pumped from that plant 8.2km to the Lake Roxburgh water supply, which has about 60 connections.
During construction, those living between the two towns were given the option of hooking up to the scheme. Council water services manager Russell Bond said about 15 people took up that offer and more had registered interest.
The new pipeline should reduce operating costs by about $20,000 per year because there would be only one water treatment plant to run.
The pipeline was funded by a ministry grant of $38,000 and a loan that is expected to take 20 years to pay back.
Council capital works programme manager Peter Greenwood said the project had been completed within budget and within the expected 14-week time frame but with a greater capacity.
The pipe will be able to supply 600cu m of water per day, 80cu m more than intended.
While the future of the now unused Lake Roxburgh treatment plant is unclear, Mr Bond said Contact Energy, which runs the neighbouring Roxburgh hydro dam, had expressed some interest.
