The University of Wollongong (UOW) has developed a Water Saving Action Plan (WSAP) to ensure it will have enough water in the future.
World Water Day was established in 1993 as an opportunity to educate people about water related issues, and to inspire others to take action and make a difference.
WSAP identifies a range of initiatives to be implemented over a number of years. The university said it has already put the plan into action, and has saved thousands of kilolitres of water.
“All the new buildings we’ve put in have low flow taps and pressure reducing systems so that we reduce the flow,” Energy & Water Sustainability Projects Engineer John Hazelton said.
“Landscaping wise we try to use the minimum by using low water requiring native plants.
“And ovals wise basically implementing better irrigation strategies with better controls.”
UOW has installed 13 tanks at its Wollongong campus, which, when combined, hold over two million litres of rainwater. The university achieved water consumption reductions from 12kL/EFTSU (Equivalent Fulltime Student) in 2006 to under 8kL/EFTSU in 2011.
“The next thing we are looking at is the swimming pool. We are almost underway with changing the filtering system in the pool, which should reduce the amount of water that we need for backwashing of the existing sand filter,” Mr Hazelton said.
