Pigeon Ponds livestock farmer Tim Leeming is one of 142 landowners that have expressed their interest in having their properties connected to the West Grampians Rural Pipeline.

Mr Leeming said the project was aimed at allowing existing agricultural enterprises to consolidate and expand, and to improve the water supply security to the townships of Harrow and Edenhope among other goals.

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"The whole sample area where this pipeline would go predominantly doesn't have access to underground water, so we rely on runoff into catchment dams, and also some on rivers and streams to supply water as well," he said.

"For about a third of the last 15 years water runoff hasn't occurred because it's a mild winter and below average annual rainfall. When your catchment dams are very low you lose a lot of water quality, and a lot of those dams and streams tend to dry up."

Mr Leeming said south west Victoria had among the highest concentration of red meat in Australia, and that land quality in the area meant farming crops was unreliable.

"When you've got a lot of livestock and that's your income and haven't got any water, you have to cart water in, which is completely inefficient: It costs you a lot of money mostly in time and your business suffers," he said.

Mr Leeming said not having access to underground water also prevented the region from attracting other businesses.

'If we can get this 100 per cent water guarantee, then property values will increase, as will the ability for shire councils and communities to attract feedlots, meat processing and other industries that require access to water," he said.

The project's steering committee, of which Mr Leeming is a part, formally submitted the business case to the state government for funding in October 2018.

West Wimmera Shire Council chief executive David Leahy said the case estimated the project would cost $99 million overall.

"We're working with Southern Grampians to have an advocacy strategy developed on behalf of landowners. We've been advised to get in front of the state and federal governments at the right time, so we're after some assistance from landholders that can perhaps put a case study forward as part of the advocacy," he said.

"We're hopefully going to get a chance to advocate before the end of this year. We're after equal contributions from both levels of the government, and obviously the people who take up the opportunity to connect to the system have got some capital investments as well."

"The time is now to really pursue it while there are some funds available at a federal level, so we're fairly keen to ramp up the level of advocacy now the business case has been presented at the state level."

GWMWater's acting managing director Andrew Rose said the group would use the lessons learned from the successful East Grampians and South West Loddon pipeline projects to inform their advocacy for funding.

The organisation is also encouraging landholders outside the service area to submit applications to inform future pipeline planning.

A spokeswoman said Expression of Interest forms could be downloaded from the GWMWater website at www.gwmwater.org.au/wgrp.

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