Inmates at a Victorian prison have threatened to not go into lock-down for the night, after a plumbing issue left them with over-flowing toilets and no fresh water.
It is understood a planned water outage for maintenance at Port Phillip Prison on Saturday morning has become an extended supply outage.
Some parts of the prison were still without running water well into Saturday night, and a union says this has created an unhygienic and potentially dangerous environment for inmates and staff.
"Water supply remains disrupted at Port Phillip Prison," the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said in a statement to AAP late on Saturday.
"Prisoners have threatened to not lock down because they are unable to flush their toilets or have access to clean drinking water."
The union said staff had concerns about relying solely on fire extinguishers in the event of a fire, that there was no water for inmates to take medications and there were also concerns basic hygiene problems would get worse overnight.
"Toilets are quite high after several uses," according to the statement.
The prison is privately run by contractor G4S, and the union said it appeared the company did not have a contingency plan should the planned water maintenance issue run over-time.
"It appears that there has been a lack of proper planning, and raises serious questions about why this private company continues to run this prison and enjoy the confidence of the state government," the CPSU says.
A spokesperson for Victorian Corrections Minister Edward O'Donohue denied that some parts of the prison remained without running water.
"Port Phillip Prison experienced a standard plumbing problem. It has now been repaired," the spokesperson said.
A G4S spokesman later told AAP the water issue had been resolved.
"There was a scheduled, routine plumbing operation that took place today," the spokesman said late on Saturday.
"There were some complications with it, but ... it has now been fixed and everything is back to normal."
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