Media Release

10 Apr 2008

Sydney's councils cut water use by almost 20 per cent

Sydney's councils have collectively cut their water use by almost 20 per cent a year since 2003.

Councils’ water saving efforts have saved ratepayers about $4.3 million a year.

Through the Every Drop Counts Business Program, council water saving initiatives and water restrictions, Sydney councils are saving about 3.2 billion litres of water.

The water savings made through the Every Drop Counts Business Program have been achieved through a number of measures, including:

• installing water efficient toilets and taps to council properties
  
• improving water use practices at leisure centres
  
• recycling stormwater and sewage to irrigate local parks.

Sydney Water has been working with councils individually to find tailor-made and innovative water savings programs.

A Sydney Water workshop held today at Olympic Park recognised the achievements councils have made in saving water and shared information to help councils make further water savings.

Standout councils were Rockdale City Council and Hornsby Shire Council, who received a five-star rating for their water saving programs.

Rockdale and Hornsby councils are the first government organisations to receive a five-star rating using Sydney Water’s One-2-Five Water management diagnostic.

Sydney Water uses this system to help businesses measure how much water they are using so they can develop a plan of action to help improve the way they manage water, meaning water savings are sustainable in the long-term.

Councils’ projects that have helped to save water include:

• Rockdale City Council has made significant savings by installing dual flush toilets, flow restrictors in taps and waterless urinals. They have also improved maintenance programs, increased their use of rainwater tanks and trained staff to audit and monitor sites.
  
  
• Hornsby Shire Council is saving 90,000 litres of water a week by reusing water from a local pool for irrigation of parkland. They are also helping the local community save water through an educational program, which included installing rainwater tanks at their community nursery and at ten local schools.
  
  
• Kogarah Council is installing sewer mining technology to recycle 125 million litres of wastewater a year for irrigation of Beverly Park Golf Course and parks in the local area. Sewer mining involves tapping into a sewer main and extracting wastewater, which is then treated and re-used for purposes such as irrigation.
  
  
• Randwick City Council is saving 100 million litres of drinking water a year by reusing and recycling wastewater and stormwater, harvesting rainwater, reusing backwash water from a council swimming pool and accessing bore water.
  
  
• Sutherland Shire Council monitors water use at their top 12 water using sites and has installed a stormwater collection system in a local park. They are currently developing plans to use treated sewage from Cronulla sewage treatment plant to irrigate two local golf courses, Toyota Shark Park and five playing fields.

Sydney Water has attracted more than 380 businesses to the Every Drop Counts Business Program since 2001, saving over 36 million litres of water a day at over 2,000 sites.

That is enough water to supply around 51,000 households for a day.

The Every Drop Counts Business Program offers free one-on-one partnerships to businesses that use more than 80,000 litres of water a day, and helps smaller business through targeted water conservation programs.

Find out more anout Sydney Water’s water saving initiatives.

 

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