Total Watermark – City as a Catchment outlines the City of Melbourne’s goal to become a water sensitive city. A water sensitive city aims to protect waterways, respond to climate change and sustainably manage the total water cycle. Understanding how water flows through our municipality as well as the resulting pollutants is essential to the “city as a catchment” approach.
Total Watermark – City as a Catchment adopts a sustainable water management hierarchy incorporating water supply within and beyond the local catchment.
Sustainable water management hierarchy – within City of Melbourne:
- reduce water demand
- consider rainwater harvesting
- consider stormwater harvesting
- consider water recycling.
Sustainable water management hierarchy – beyond the local catchment. Minimimse the impact of:
- wastewater within the Melbourne Water Sewage Transfer Network
- stormwater in the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers and Moonee Ponds Creek.
Potable water reduction targets
Total Watermark - City as a Catchment commits the City of Melbourne to achieving targets for saving water, increasing water sourced from alternative supplies, improving stormwater quality, reducing wastewater and supporting groundwater.
The overall municiple-wide target for reduction in potable water consumption is 25 per cent by 2020. This includes savings across the commercial and residential sectors and Council’s own operations.
Total Watermark – City as a Catchment also sets water quality targets that call for a reduction in pollutants such as suspended solids, litter, phosphorus and nitrogen on Council and non-Council land.
How we can all save water
To achieve its 2020 targets, the City of Melbourne aims to undertake a range of on-ground works across the public and private sectors. These include:
Projects for Council-managed assets
Further reduction of potable water use in parks such as mulching, understanding soil types, planting drought-tolerant species.
Reducing water use in Council-owned buildings through efficient fittings and toilets, improved fire-sprinkler testing regimes, cooling tower efficiencies and rainwater harvesting. Also stormwater harvesting, sewer mining and stormwater treatment for streetscapes and parks.
Projects for commercial buildings
Commercial buildings can benefit from reducing energy and water use. Programs such as 1200 Buildings encourage building owners and managers to retrofit their buildings to reduce water use by improved fire-sprinkler testing regimes, cooling tower efficiencies, purchasing water efficient appliances, fittings and toilets, property management and tenant behaviour change programs.
Projects for residential buildings
Residents can reduce their water consumption in a number of ways including: purchasing efficient fittings and appliances, using swimming pool covers, chosing drought tolerant plants, installing rainwater tanks and for high rise residential buildings balancing ring mains and working to achieve fire sprinkler and cooling tower efficiencies.
Success to date
Since the first edition of Total Watermark – City as a Catchment was adopted by Council in 2002 the municipality has responded and we are on track to achieve our water targets for 2020:
- workers reduced their water use 48 per cent from 2000–08
- residents used almost 39 per cent less
- the City of Melbourne used 29 per cent less
- 4 per cent less pollution entered our waterways (total suspended solids; 2005–2008).
Total Watermark – City as a Catchment will be reviewed in 2012 to align with any changes in policy, design, technology, behaviour and other factors.