Reducing wastewater discharges

Wastewater is the used water that goes down sinks, toilets and drains. Once it arrives at a wastewater treatment plant, located near the ocean or a river, the wastewater is treated and discharged to our waterways. Treated wastewater is often referred to as effluent.

Currently about 122 billion litres of treated wastewater is prevented from reaching Sydney's ocean and rivers each year as a direct result of more efficient water use and water recycling measures.

By 2015 it is projected that this figure will increase to 177 billion litres a year as a result of measures outlined in the 2010 Metropolitan Water Plan. This includes an increase in recycling to 70 billion litres a year by 2015 and efficiency measures such as WaterFix to increase water savings.

	Wastewater re-used or otherwise prevented from entering waterways
	As at 30 June 2010	Projected total by 2015
Action	Gigalitres/year	Gigalitres/year
Efficient use of water	92	115
Water recycling	30	62
Total	122	177

Sydney Water has based these projections on the estimated increases in water recycling and water savings from the efficient use of water over the next five years. Recycling projects and water efficiency measures that would not reduce the quantity of wastewater that flows into our rivers and oceans have been excluded (for example, recycling stormwater or water efficiency measures that replace drinking water for garden watering).

Section 27 of the Sydney Water Act requires Sydney Water to publish wastewater discharge projections and seek community comment on the amount of wastewater to be re-used or prevented from being discharged to waterways. The projections for 2010-2015 were displayed on the Sydney Water website for public comment throughout December 2010. There were no comments on the projections received.