00:00When Lauren Palmer and her young family moved into a new home in the northeast Victorian
00:07town of Tangambalanga, the lack of water pressure became an instant problem.
00:13When the pressure's bad, so especially in summer, in that sort of evening time when
00:16everyone's getting tea ready, it's terrible.
00:19The expensive sprinkler system they had installed barely works.
00:23She's had to buy a new washing machine that runs on low water pressure.
00:28And the bath took so long to fill, they stopped using it.
00:32So we've given up on that entirely and the bath's now used as storage.
00:36Now the future of her new community is uncertain.
00:40Building in this Tangambalanga estate has come to the end of the road.
00:45This street should be leading to at least 200 new homes.
00:49But without the guarantee of adequate water and sewerage infrastructure, construction
00:54has quite literally come to a dead end.
00:57We could have substantially developed the balance of the estate over that period of
01:01time if we'd had the appropriate water infrastructure here.
01:05Water infrastructure issues are putting a halt on crucial housing developments across
01:10the region.
01:11A 10 minute drive away in Leneva, this paddock is ready to house 400 new homes.
01:17And developers say they could build thousands more.
01:20But those plans are on hold.
01:23We're ready to go here in terms of we've got an approved development plan.
01:28We don't have the pipes to connect to.
01:30The need for more pipes here has been known by council and state agencies for years.
01:36But the water corporations charged with providing them simply don't have the money to do so.
01:41I think we would say that there needs to be more funding for critical infrastructure,
01:46particularly for the next 10 years to cater for growth.
01:49These estates are a crucial part of the state government's target of building 800,000 homes
01:55in a decade.
01:56It approved an emergency increase in some water corporations' debt caps last year and
02:02says it remains on track to deliver its promise.
02:06This is work that will continue with the planning minister, with local councils and of course
02:10on the really important issues of essential infrastructure.
02:14But developers don't share in that confidence.
02:17The only way these problems can be resolved in any sort of reasonable time frame is for
02:22state government to step up and provide extra funding to enable the infrastructure to be developed.
02:29Lauren Palmer just wants to see her new neighbourhood grow.
02:33Until they can fix the water issue, I don't see it happening.
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