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Water Filtration Plants
- Where does my water come from?
- The Water Cycle (PDF - 2241KB)
- Water Catchments, Filtration Plants & Pumping Stations
(PDF - 613KB) - Water Filtration Plants Overview (PDF - 751KB)
- Water Filtration Processes (PDF - 22KB)
Water catchments, filtration plants & pumping stations
Most drinking water is collected in the protected catchment areas surrounding Sydney's dams. The North Richmond system is supplied from the Hawkesbury river. From the dams or rivers it is piped into Water Filtration Plants, filtered and disinfected, then delivered through a network of reservoirs, pipes and pumping stations to customers' homes.
Sydney Water operates a water supply system through which we deliver an average of around 1700 million litres of water a day to more than 1.6 million properties or over 4 million people. Across our area of operations there are 9 water filtration plants and nearly 21,000 kilometres of water mains, 259 reservoirs and 151 water pumping stations.
To ensure drinking water is of the highest quality, all water supplied by Sydney Water is disinfected using chlorine after it has been filtered. Ammonia is also added in combination with chlorine in some systems in a disinfection process known as chloramination. Fluoride is also added for dental health as required by legislation.
Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA)
The Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) was established on 1 July 1999 to manage the catchments and dams, which supply the bulk of the raw water for Sydney.
Sydney Water and the SCA work together to ensure that Sydney's drinking water supply is safe to drink. The SCA is responsible for conducting water quality monitoring in the catchments and dams before it is delivered to Sydney Water's water filtration plants.
More information about the Sydney Catchment Authority is available on the Internet at www.sca.nsw.gov.au.
