Hospitals and health facilities

Health facilities account for about five per cent of Sydney’s business water use – or 21 million litres of water every day.

Sydney Water has developed basic water use benchmarks for hospitals. Use these to see if your hospital is water efficient or not.

Benchmarks for hospitals

Larger hospitals (>400 beds) should be aiming for a benchmark water use of 500 litres or less per bed per day (averaged over a year)
Smaller hospitals (<400 beds) should aim for 350 litres or less per bed per day.

Water audits show the main areas of water use and potential waste in hospitals are:

The most practical ways of saving water in hospitals are:

fitting at least 3-Star WELS rated shower heads and flow regulators
replacing single flush toilets with dual flush models
conducting preventative maintenance of your amenities to prevent leaks and overflows

Installing water meter monitoring systems is also vital to manage complex water systems in hospitals and detect hidden leaks.

Proper maintenance of air-conditioning cooling towers, boilers and sterilisers will also save money and water.

Other water savings ideas for hospitals include:

reusing water purification (reverse osmosis) waste streams to flush toilets and top up cooling towers
capturing and return of steam condensate to boilers
replacing water-using liquid ring vacuum pumps with dry running waterless models
replacing older pan sanitisers and dishwashers with more water efficient equipment
capturing rainwater for irrigation and cooling tower top up
repairing leaks from pools

Many of these water saving ideas can be applied in smaller health facilities as well.

To find out how the EDC Business Program has helped hospitals and health facilities to save water see our case studies.

Use our contact form for membership enquiries and questions about the program.