Saving buckets with borewater

UNSW has received $747,000 from the NSW State Government to build a borewater treatment plant for the western end of Kensington campus.

The borewater treatment plant will enable recycling of harvested stormwater collected via the new percolation chamber to be used as cooling water for air-conditioning systems, in laboratory water systems and in toilets.

Minister for Water Utilities, the Hon. David Campbell, announced the grant at a ceremony at UNSW attended by Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Richard Henry, Coogee MP Paul Pearce, Environment Unit manager Paul Osmond and representatives from McLachlan Lister who will coordinate the project.

The treatment plant will save the same amount of potable water consumed by 375 Randwick households in a year - or about 100 Olympic swimming pools full of water.

"Overall actions in our Water Saving Action Plan - of which this is part - will save the amount of potable water used annually by 570 Randwick households," says Paul Osmond.

UNSW currently consumes each day the amount of water that three Randwick households use in a year.