COLAC’S water authority will spend close to $28 million to secure the city’s water supply.

Barwon Water has released its draft five-year plan, which also includes plans for a price increase.

Interim Managing Director Joe Adamski said the Colac project was the biggest in the 2013-2018 plan.

“What we’re looking at there is really securing Colac’s water supply into the future, both for the current customer base and for allowing growth into the future,” Mr Adamski said.

“We’ve made a capital growth allocation of $27.4 million,” he said.

Mr Adamski said there were “a number of options” to secure supply.

“One of the areas that we want to look at is that there is one pipe supplying Colac from Gellibrand,” he said.

“There are a number of options, and hopefully we can have an option where water is supplied through another pipeline so you can have the option of having alternate supplies.

“We’re committed to delivering the project in the next water plan.”

Mr Adamski said Barwon Water executives would speak to Colac Otway Shire Council about population projections to help develop a plan.

“It’s like any future planning we undertake, we look at security of supply, we look at how we can manage for growth in a particular region,” he said.

“If the road gets duplicated to Colac, that could attract further growth.”

Colac’s Barwon Water customers will face a one-per-cent increase to their bills for each of the five years, on top of consumer price index increases.

Mr Adamski said the increase would be “one of the lowest” in the state.

Central Highlands Water, which manages Ballarat’s water supply, is proposing an 8.5 per cent increase in 2013-14, and a CPI increase for the four subsequent years.

Wannon Water, which manages water supply for Camperdown, Hamilton and Warrnambool, is proposing annual CPI increases to water prices in its five-year plan.

The water plan is available for public comment until July 31.