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Our Systems and Operations

Water services

Water Systems
for Sydney,
Blue Mountains
& the Illawarra
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Sydney Water supplies more than 1.4 billion litres of water to more than 1.7 million homes and businesses each day.

We buy our untreated water from the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA), the organisation responsible for bulk water supply in the Greater Sydney region. About 80 per cent of our supply comes from the Warragamba Dam.

We treat the water at 9 water filtration plants to a standard that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Organic matter, sediment and minerals such as iron and manganese are removed, the water is disinfected with chlorine and fluoride is added to prevent tooth decay. The largest plant at Prospect treats more than 80 per cent of our water.

We then distribute the water to our customers via our network of 266 service reservoirs, 148 pumping stations and nearly 21,000 kilometres of water mains.

Wastewater services

Wastewater Systems
for Sydney,
Blue Mountains
& the Illawarra
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Sydney Water collects and treats more than 1.2 billion litres of wastewater from homes and businesses each day.

Of this, we recycle more than 36 million litres each day. Our sewerage network services around 1.6 million homes and businesses in the Greater Sydney region.

Wastewater collected in the sewerage system flows to STPs where it is treated before being reused or discharged to rivers or oceans in accordance with strict licence conditions issued by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). All biosolids captured (100 per cent) are used for agricultural or horticultural purposes.

Around 75 per cent of our wastewater is processed at our three biggest plants at Malabar, North Head and Bondi. The effect of discharges on water quality and aquatic life is monitored every week by the Department of Environment and Climate Change to ensure performance standards are met.

Recycled water

Sydney Water has a number of water recycling schemes in place that help reduce discharges of treated wastewater to the environment and reduce demand on existing and future water supplies.

Use of recycled water has increased from 6.2 billion litres a year in 1995 to approximately 22 billion litres a year. This will grow to 70 billion litres a year by 2015.

Stormwater services

Stormwater Network Map
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We provide stormwater services to over 1.1 million people, servicing more than 474,000 properties mostly in the inner-west and inner south-west suburbs of Sydney. We also manage flood-prone land and trunk drainage (channels) in the Rouse Hill Development Area.

Our 436 kilometres of stormwater drains serve around 25% of metropolitan Sydney, however by length our system represents less than 5% of the total metropolitan stormwater network.

Our stormwater services help to:

protect people and property from flooding
improve waterway health
provide for growth and integrated water cycle opportunities.

Sydney Water operates 60 Stormwater Quality Improvement Devices (SQIDs), which include devices such as trash racks, litter booms and sediment traps. Since 1991, we have removed over 25,000 cubic metres of litter and organic waste as well as 25,000 tonnes of sediment from stormwater, before it reaches waterways. Find out more about stormwater quality improvement.