Water supply

The NSW Government's 2006 Metropolitan Water Plan outlines how Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains will have enough water now and in the future.

With limited and highly variable rainfall in the catchments, the community can no longer rely on water from the dams. To increase the water supply, Sydney Water is:

• building plants to recycle 70 billion litres of wastewater a year by 2015. Water recycling will provide up to 12% of Sydney's water needs
• building a desalination plant to provide up to 15% of Sydney's water supply in the summer of 2009-10
• helping the community and business to use water wisely - water efficiency initiatives will save up to 145 billion litres a year by 2015. That's about 24% of the water supply.