Stormwater harvesting video text
Description: Monash University logo and Stormwater Harvesting Title
Description: City of Melbourne skyline. Various shots of Cardinia Dam
Narration: As a portent of a future under climate change, Australian cities are experiencing critical water shortages, along with increased flooding, higher temperatures and the degradation of waterways.
A Monash-led research project believes the time is right to put a bold idea on the table that could produce 20 to 30 per cent of Melbourne’s future water needs, about the same as the $1 billion Wonthaggi desalination plant.
Caption: Associate Professor Rebekah Brown. School of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Rebekah Brown: “The project is trying to look at this idea of harvesting storm water which many parts of the Australian community is already doing. We want to do it in a more systematic way and we want to provide the information and the science to give communities and politicians confidence in supporting unique types of technologies to address our water supply issues.”
Description: Storm water running down gutter into storm water drain. Various shots of bio-filtration project at the Docklands.
Narration: Almost as much stormwater falls on Melbourne as the population use every year, but only a fraction is captured and reused. Billions of litres of free water literally goes down the drain and into Port Phillip Bay.
The Water Sensitive Cities project aims to harness the potential of stormwater to overcome water shortages, reduce urban temperatures and improve the landscape and liveability of Australian cities.
Caption: Professor Ana Deletic. Institute of Sustainable Water Resources.
Description: Overlay of bio-filtration project in suburban reserve.
Ana Deletic: “Storm water harvesting is not just about water security and capturing water. It’s also about managing storm water pollution. This thing that you see here is actually a very good example of a storm water pollution control measure that we do in Melbourne.
Description: Water flowing in suburban creek
Narration: Serious investment by government and business is required to capture the water, clean it and recycle it for the city’s non-drinking water uses.
Rebekah Brown: "For the last 200 years in Australia we’ve basically relied on centralised water supplies. So we build dams and reservoirs outside of our cities, connect a big pipe to it and bring water into our cities and then put in a waster water system to send it away. And we’re going to still need that in the future but we need to supplement that by harvesting water that falls on our cities.”
Description: Cardinia Dam. Suburban bio-filtration project. Suburban creek
Narration: Under the model in a city like Melbourne our drinking water would continue to be sourced from dams and desalination.
But for each hectare of new housing a 100,000 litre tank or holding basin would supply the non-drinking needs of surrounding households. These basins would also help cool our increasingly hot cities.
While there are different methods most involve the capture of stormwater in neighbourhood parks and creeks then letting nature clean it through bio-filtration.
Ana Deletic: “Melbourne developers are spending lots of money building these sort of systems to purify storm water just for environmental protection but since that water is of a very good quality now with new technologies we can actually do extra and deliver that water to people.”
Description: Storm water harvesting project at Syndal South Primary School. School children tending vegetable garden.
Narration: At Syndal South primary school in Melbourne’s east the theory is being put into practice on a large scale. Stormwater from the schoolyard as well as the roof is gravity filtered through layers of sand and screenings before being captured in large underground tanks. The cleaned-up water is then pumped up to header tanks, providing the school with over 1 million litres of water for toilet flushing and playing fields. The 370 pupil school has cut its use of fresh water by two thirds.
Description: Monash University logo and Stormwater Harvesting Title
Video ends.