Living in a clean, safe environment

Clean waterways can make us feel better about where we live. We like the water near us to:

• be safe
• have no litter
• look and smell nice
• have plants growing nearby
• be a home for animals
• look inviting to swim in.

Managing water and protecting the environment is very important to us. We play a huge role in contributing to healthy waterways.

Learn more about our role in Enhancing the liveability of our cities.

Changing values

As Sydney has grown over time, our value of water in the environment has changed.

Creek and rivers that were once natural sources of clean water may have been turned into:

• canals for transport of goods and people
• underground sewers redirected around houses and industry
• stormwater ways to help reduce the impact of flooding.

Today, with improving technologies to manage water, we value creeks and rivers differently. We want them to:

• be a place for recreation 
• look like natural environments
• provide habitat for animals.

Learn more about our current projects.

Water connecting us to a place

Did you know that about 85% of Australians live within 50 km of the coastline of Australia? People can feel a connection to the place they live through water.

Being near water, on the water or in the water can make many people feel relaxed, calm and connected to the natural environment. How do you feel when you're near water?

In indigenous cultures, the way the water shaped the environment and brings life is important. For thousands of years Aboriginal people have lived with respect for nature and the environment, including water, because all of nature is sacred. Read the dreamtime story of the Illawarra and the five islands.

Meet four Sydneysiders and discover the role our tap water plays in one of their much-loved cultural traditions.

 

Water for celebration

What role does water play when you celebrate?

Often families and communities gather around water to celebrate milestones in life and special dates of the year.

Water can be an important part of many cultural traditions such as:

• Songkran - This festival in Thailand, originally a Hindu celebration, is an enormous water fight party during the hottest time of the year.
• Vardavar - Celebrated in Armenia, this water festival came from both Christian and pagan backgrounds. People go onto the streets and spray one another with water.
• Sapporo Snow Festival - This Japanese festival is the largest snow and ice festival in the world. It features carvings made from gigantic blocks of ice.
• Loy Krathong - People gather around lakes, rivers and canals to pay respects to the goddess of water by releasing beautiful lotus shaped rafts decorated with candles, incense and flowers onto the water.
• New Year's Eve - In Australia, we love to welcome in the new year by celebrating on or near our major waterways.

How liveable a place is can indicate the quality of life of the people who live there.

Liveable cities have access to clean, safe drinking water and the removal of wastewater (sanitation). That means our health and wellbeing are being cared for in the places we live.

Access to services and facilities like water, power, communications, transport, healthcare and education provides choices in our lives. For example:

• how healthy you are
• what type of recreation you can participate in
• how far you can go in your education
• what your employment opportunities are.
   

Water for hygiene

Clean water keeps us healthy and helps us manage our personal hygiene.

Using water and soap to clean your hands is essential to help stop the spread of infectious diseases. Practise simple hygiene by washing hands regularly. See this guide from NSW Health to see how.

Water also helps us with sanitation, such as flushing toilets. Did you know that the invention of toilets helped to save lives? See How the toilet changed history.

When you flush your toilet your used water is removed and then we clean it to use again or return it to the environment safely. This is called Wastewater treatment.
 
This process is important for our health and the health of our environment.

Water for wellbeing

Have you thought about how access to water contributes to the wellbeing of a community?

Some people don't have easy access to water, especially if they don't have a home. How will their dignity, health and hygiene be affected?

There are many places in the world where people don't have good access to clean water and proper sanitation. In fact, about half the world's population doesn't have access to a toilet. Imagine if you didn’t?

What is World Toilet Day?

Access to water for showering, doing laundry and keeping clean can improve people's wellbeing.

One of the ways we help is by sponsoring Orange Sky Australia. Orange Sky is the world's first free mobile laundry service for people without access to clean, safe washing facilities.

We've funded a shower and laundry van that provides access to basic hygiene in our local community. This will help restore dignity to those who are easily forgotten.

Try our Orange Sky lesson plan in the classroom.

The cost of water

It costs money to make sure there's high quality, safe water every time you turn on the tap.

There's a lot to think about when setting prices for water and there's different prices for your home and businesses. One litre of Sydney tap water costs less than one cent.

You might like to compare our prices with some other countries, like Singapore and Thames Water in the United Kingdom. Remember to convert to Australian dollars!

Did you know bottled water can be 1,800 times more expensive than tap water? Although bottled water is much more expensive it's not necessarily any better for us, or the environment. Learn more about Tap water versus bottled water.

We offer a range of options to help customers who have trouble paying their bills. Find out how we can provide help with your bill.

Future costs of water

When we plan for access to water in the future, we need to think about the number of people who will be living in Sydney, where they live and the amount of water available.

Sydney relies on rainfall being collected in dams for its water supply, but rainfall can be unreliable.

To manage future water scarcity, we need to conserve water and look to other water sources.

As our urban environment grows, there are things we can do to manage stormwater sensitively and do more water recycling to keep water available and affordable for all.