Water network

Every day, we supply over 1.5 billion litres of drinking water to homes and businesses. About 80% of it comes from Warragamba Dam. Sydney Desalination Plant at Kurnell is also supplying water to up to 1.5 million people as dam levels have fallen below 60%.

We treat your water at one of nine water filtration plants, or the desalination plant, and supply it through a network of 22,822 kilometres of pipes, 247 reservoirs and 151 pumping stations.

Read our weekly water supply report to find out how much drinking water we've supplied recently.

SWP [WaterSystem] Full schematic

We manage a complex network of pipes and reservoirs.

Legend

SWP [WaterSystem] [Icon] Catchments

Catchments

Rivers drain water from the land around them. The surrounding land is called a river catchment. Our water network is supplied by a catchment area of over 16,500 km².

SWP [WaterSystem] [Icon] Dams

Dams

Seven major dams store Sydney's water. Smaller dams also hold water that can be transferred to the major dams. WaterNSW manages our catchments and dams.

SWP [WaterSystem] [Icon] Water filtration plants

Water filtration plants

WaterNSW supplies water from dams and we treat it at one of nine water filtration plants. We treat your water to a set of criteria called the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. This ensures your water is high quality and safe to drink.

SWP [WaterSystem] [Icon] Customer supply systems

Customer supply systems

After filtration, your water enters a complex series of pipes and reservoirs before it arrives at your home or business. Prospect Water Filtration Plant is the largest and most complex plant. It supplies water to about 80% of Sydney.

SWP [WaterSystem] [Icon] Water filtration plants

Desalination plant

Sydney Desalination Plant helps to supply Sydney with water when total dam storage levels fall below 60%. The plant uses special technology called reverse osmosis to turn seawater into drinking water.

Always check your information. We've taken care in collecting and checking this information, but the supply and source of water can change due to customer demand.

See also

Find answers

Why don't you have any water?
There are a few common reasons why you might not have any water.
- Occasionally we turn the meter tap off to repair your private water pipes. A plumber may also turn it off while working on your property. Please check the meter tap is in the 'on' position (turn anti-clockwise like normal household taps).
- If you live in a property that shares a water meter, eg a block of units, someone may have turned off the water supply to the entire block to repair a fault. Contact your body corporate or strata management to investigate.
- We may be fixing a broken or damaged water main and need to turn off the water supply to fix it. Register for water outage alerts if you'd like us to notify you when we need to turn off the water supply to your property.
What can you do if you have no water and your meter tap is turned on?
Please check our water supply & service updates map to see if we're working near your property. A problem in a nearby street may affect your property even though you can't see it.

Check for outages

13 20 90 (24 hours/7 days) to report a fault.

The meter tap controls the water supply to your property - it's not a standard garden tap. Always check that it's turned on before contacting us.
Why is your water white/milky/cloudy?
Cloudy water is caused by tiny air bubbles. The water is safe to drink.
From time to time, the water may appear 'cloudy' when you turn on your tap.

Cloudy water is just tiny air bubbles caused by water of different temperatures entering our system.

This is completely natural, particularly in the warmer months. Your water is safe to drink.

When you fill a glass, the water will clear from the bottom up and should be completely clear in a few seconds. If you're concerned, let the water rest for 30 seconds.

Please contact us if you're still concerned about your water quality.
What does hard and soft water mean?
Water hardness refers to the mineral content (particularly calcium and magnesium carbonates) within the water.

Other things can also influence the effects of hardness. These include the type of minerals present, pH, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen and temperature. If these other factors combine, water can become corrosive if it's too soft.

If the water is too hard, it can deposit minerals. This can cause scaling or make it hard to create foam or lather from soap.

Although a single scale can't accurately describe the hardness of water, typically, water is considered:
- soft below 60 mg/L
- moderately hard between 60 - 120 mg/L
- hard between 120 - 200 mg/L
- very hard above 200 mg/L.
Sydney's water is 'soft'
On average, our water has a hardness level of about 50 mg/L, so it's considered soft. When water is soft, you don’t need to add as much detergent to get things clean. Also, less soap scum builds up.

Many European brand appliances, such as dishwashers, use a water hardness measurement known as 'millimoles' (shown as mml CaCO₃, or mmol/L).

To translate our measurement of mg/L to mmol/L, divide our level by 100.

For example, our water has a hardness level of about 50 mg/L. To convert this figure into millimoles, simply divide 50 by 100, which equals 0.50 mmol/L
What is water pressure?
Water pressure is a measure of the force needed to move water from our mains into your pipes.

Most properties in Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains receive water pressure at between 15 m and 65 m on average.
Average water pressure
We supply a minimum pressure of 15 m head at the main tap. This is at the point of connection to our system (where your water pipe leaves our water main).

The current overall average pressure is 52 m. Some customers receive significantly higher pressure - above 100 m.
Water pressure management
Find out how we're:
- reducing water pressure in areas with very high pressure through our Water Pressure Management Program
- monitoring and improving water pressure levels through our Water Pressure Monitoring Program.
Water pressure testing
Learn about Testing your water pressure at home.

Read more about what we supply in our Customer Contract.

Printed on: 22/03/19 02:49

URL: http://www.sydneywater.com.au/SW/water-the-environment/how-we-manage-sydney-s-water/water-network/index.htm

Copyright: © Sydney Water 2019