Mandurah residents have been urged to heed warnings that danger could be lurking in their own backyards, under old, rusty bore lids.
After witnessing a child playing near a bore that had a grungy, old and unstable lid, Falcon man Ben Kraucevs looked into domestic bore safety in the state.
Mr Kraucevs was shocked to find that many bores in his neighbourhood had inadequate covers that had the potential to break if stood on.
He said often, the bores were deep and had been could be fatal if a someone fell down one.
“Some of these bores you can not see the bottom of. The potential of death from a fall is real,” he said.
“People are just unaware that the lid is the only barrier to a very deep hole.”
So disturbed by the issue, Mr Kraucevs based his own business around the problem.
Since founding Convex Bore Covers, the duo has replaced unsafe bore lids across the region and have endeavoured to spread the warning.
Domestic bores generally abstract groundwater for irrigating lawn and gardens, watering a small area of pasture – such as house paddocks in rural areas or for firefighting.
Domestic bores are a common feature throughout many suburbs in private gardens and community parks.
It is estimated there are about 177 000 domestic bores within the Perth-Peel metropolitan area, with a combined abstraction of up to 88 gigalitres per year from shallow groundwater.
Mr Kraucevs said he had heard serious examples of potential dangers during his time replacing bore lids such as children playing on or tampering with the covers, pets becoming trapped under or falling in the bore.
“They all house electricity and when the lid is leaking this creates a dangerous environment and potential electric shock.
“From my research, 45 per cent of domestic bores are visible to the street and 85 per cent of those are either dented, corroded, damaged, makeshift or insufficiently covered. Not to mention, not locked.”
He said it was important people acted before anyone was seriously injured.
“People are normally unaware of the potential dangers until something goes wrong and that's when they start looking for a solution,” Mr Kraucevs said.
He said adequate bore lids were also the solution to various environmental issues, including native animals becoming trapped and contamination the water source.
Mr Kraucevs is in discussions with local government and Mandurah MP to push for boarder awareness on the issue in the community.
There is currently no standard requirement for private landowners to ensure their bores are sufficiently covered.
