Workers are nearing completion on major upgrades that are being conducted to the Town of Leader's water treatment plant.

The project began late last year after the Water Security Agency (WSA) identified in certain circumstances, the chlorine didn't have enough contact time with the treated water.

After close examination by a team of engineers, the town was able to avoid having to purchase a baffle wall, instead, they were able to reroute the existing piping giving the chlorine more contact time with the water.

With the parts arriving in February, the reconstruction process of the piping began. Alongside the piping project was the installation of a new UV system, control panel, filters, and electronic filter valves.

Earlier this week the town asked residents to reduce any excess usage of water until Saturday, to allow for programming to be completed.

Leader's water treatment plant was officially opened in 2003 according to the government of Saskatchewan Publications Centre and has been providing safer drinking water since.

"We have fantastic water," Rochelle Francis administrator for the Town of Leader said. "I go to cities and I don't notice a difference between our water and their water. We're known to have great drinking water, so that's definitely something we wanted to keep and this (set of upgrades) will keep us at that standard."

All that's left now for the approximate $520,000 project, is replacing the old hydraulic filter valves with new electronic filter valves.

Work is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.