Water Reuse Schemes
Every Drop Counts
We all use water at home and at work for drinking, washing, cooking, growing food and many other things. On average, each of us uses 147 litres of water per day in our households alone, equal to 53,000 litres a year.
Green Office Program – Water
The UWS Green Office Program has been designed to green your office, reduce office waste and increase recycling. There are a number of ways you can help save on water and green your office:
- Report a leaks to Capital Work and Facilities at facilities@uws.edu.au
- Turn off taps properly, and check to make sure it isn’t dripping – switch off and save
- Only turn on the washing machine when it is fully loaded
- Hand wash your cups and dishes – one plate doesn’t need a bucket of water to be washed clean
- Use the half flush and full flush buttons on the toilet as appropriate
- Join a landcare group on campus to help improve local waterways and wetlands on campus
UWS Water Initiatives
The UWS Water Conservation and Management program ensures compliance with water saving objectives (PDF, 87.85 KB) (opens in a new window) and action plans, seeks to minimise water-borne pollution discharge and aims to reduce water consumption. Since the implementation of Water Saving Action Plans water consumption on UWS Kingswood campus has decreased by 24% per EFTSL.
The Hawkesbury Water Recycling Scheme
Did you know that UWS has the capacity to recycle 700,000 kilolitres of water per year through the Hawkesbury Water Recycling Scheme (PDF, 171.87 KB) (opens in a new window). That's equivalent to 350 olympic sized swimming pools.
Rainwater Harvesting
Rainwater harvesting to irrigate gardens and/or to provide toilet flushing is undertaken where appropriate and installations are now at almost all campuses. Major installations of large water tanks are underground on the Werrington South campus, embedded in new buildings at Parramatta and above ground on Hawkesbury and Campbelltown campuses.
Water Sensitive Urban Design
Landscape Masterplans have been developed for all campuses to provide a set of guiding principles encompassing issues such as safety through design, sustainability and water sensitive design and robustness of materials. Water sensitive gardens employ sub-surface irrigation and use carpark and avenue planting to enhance shade and character.
Expanding our use of Reclaimed Stormwater
For the past 30 years, UWS has been using recycled water and stormwater to irrigate agricultural and horticultural areas of Hawkesbury campus. In 2009, we extended our use of stormwater to include historical areas of the campus. In 2010, we installed new irrigation lines around the student accommodation villas and lodges to facilitate irrigation of the lawns and gardens in that area with stormwater. Since then we have also installed new irrigation systems around Fairy Circle and the Quad.
To further extend our use of stormwater and, hence, reduce our reliance on potable water, we are currently designing extensions to the existing irrigation system on the Hawkesbury campus. The extension will consist of a combination of pop-up sprinklers and sub-surface irrigation, which will allow us to enhance the lawns and gardens in historical areas of the campus and reduce the risk of damage to those areas caused by dry conditions and drought.
Please see UWS Water Initiatives (PDF, 54.64 KB) (opens in a new window) for further information.
SURF Project - Water Harvesting Campbelltown
The Sustainable UWS Rolling Fund (surf) program funds sustainability projects that are developed, managed and implemented by UWS staff and students. Harvesting an additional 62,000 litres of water per year by harvesting discharges from the distilled water unit at the School of Medicine. Please see the video clip below for more details.
UWS Water Research
Hawkesbury River Waterkeeper
The University of Western Sydney, TAFE NSW Western Sydney Institute (opens in a new window) and the Hawkesbury Environment Network (HEN) (opens in a new window) have entered into a unique partnership to work together to protect the health and vitality of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. For more information, please see Hawkesbury River Waterkeeper.
WISER Network
The Water and Land Management Innovation and Strategy Enhancement Partnership in Peri-urban Research (WISER) Network has brought key water stakeholders together for water management cooperation at regional and national levels. This collaboration will work on water management and planning issues that are emerging due to population growth in urban areas and land use changes in peri-urban areas surrounding our major cities and towns.
Engaging Communities in Water Management Planning
The Engaging Communities in Water Management Planning research project is part of the WSROC/WiTL initiative that aims to widen the engagement of the general population to address regional water issues, from the current focus on household water use to the potential impacts of water supply constraints on environmental values, regional amenty and land uses.
Water projects at other universities and colleges
- Water conservation - for example see Sustainable Stanford website (opens in a new window)
- Rainwater harvesting - for example see NC State University website (opens in a new window)
- Water consumption - for example see Arizona State University (opens in a new window)
- Bottled water facts and research - for example see Bottle Water Alliance website (opens in a new window)
Water SURF projects at other universities and colleges
- Purchase of autoclave water economizers - for example see Pilot for the replacement of water aspirators in laboratories - New York University website (opens in a new window). The University of Notre Dame has reduced water consumption in its laboratories through this project.
If your section of UWS is addressing any of these areas or additional ones, please let us know by emailing us at sustainability@uws.edu.au
