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Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo
Heaven sent
25 November 2009
There's an alternate water resource for a city like Melbourne, but at the moment it is literally going down the drain.
Harvesting urban stormwater is a bold idea being developed by a multidisciplinary team at Monash, one they believe could produce 20 to 30 per cent of Melbourne's annual future water needs.
The Water Sensitive Cities project aims to harness stormwater to overcome water shortages, reduce urban temperatures and improve the landscape and liveability of Australian cities.
"We must find new, more integrated solutions that can address the problems thrown up by climate change and population growth," Professor Ana Deletic from the Department of Civil Engineering said.
"Stormwater is cheap for non-drinking uses. If we started to build the infrastructure to capture it, we could have a viable alternative source of water.”
The team includes researchers from the Engineering, Arts, Science, and Business and Economics faculties - as well as from urban design company EDAW Australia Ltd, the University of Queensland and the University of Melbourne.
There are different models, but most involve the capture of stormwater in neighbourhood parks and creeks, letting nature clean it through bio-filtration, then its reuse in toilets, for washing and on gardens.
Associate Professor Rebekah Brown from the School of Geography and Environmental Science said the biggest impediment is what she calls "institutional".
"Conventional approaches to water supply and urban design are not directed at building a diversity of water sources," Professor Brown said.
"Just as important as proving the technology is convincing government and the public that this is a practical and achievable idea."
At Syndal South Primary School in Melbourne's east the theory is being put into practice. Stormwater is gravity filtered through novel filtration technology before being captured in large underground tanks. The cleaned water then provides the school with more than one million litres of water for toilet flushing and irrigation of playing fields.
Find out more on the Facility for Advancing Water Biofiltration website.
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