Melburnians love green spaces, from tree-lined streets to local parks and beautiful gardens. We’ve heard from both our community and visitors that these spaces are important and should be enhanced and increased.
For the City of Melbourne, planning for water security involves being more water efficient and having other water supplies that don’t rely on Greater Melbourne’s drinking water.
Our climate is drying and there is less water in our rivers. Greater Melbourne is facing water shortfalls from reduced rainfall and a growing population. Currently, demand from our dams exceeds supply, with Melbournians using more water a year than water that flows into our storages.
Many water supply options take years of planning and investment before they can deliver the water needed. Storage levels can drop quickly in times of drought.
During the Millenium drought (2001-2009), strict water restrictions were enforced across the state. We saw our green spaces turn to brown fields and the deaths of many significant trees.
The drought highlighted the need to conserve water and use it in the right way throughout our city. This means keeping our city green with alternatives to the Greater Melbourne water supply.
Premature death of trees
Restrictions in the use of sports grounds due to lack of grass cover and increased injury risk from harder grounds.
Decreased soil moisture and lower ground water.
City of Melbourne has put several measures in place to increase our water security including:
For more information about City of Melbourne’s stormwater harvesting projects, visit the Urban Water website.
There are two main ways that City of Melbourne can improve our water security.
City of Melbourne has a target for 50 per cent of Council water use to be sourced from alternative sources by 2030.
Rainfall that is collected off roof areas can be directed to a rainwater tank or in some cases fed directly onto surrounding garden features using down pipe diverters.
Rainwater requires minimal treatment before use and can also be designed to help reduce the impact of flooding. It is well suited to buildings with large roof areas.
Stormwater is the rainfall collected off hard surfaces like roads, car parks and footpaths. Stormwater can flow directly into tree pits and garden beds, or it can be treated and stored to irrigate larger areas.
Using stormwater to irrigate greening has benefits for local waterways, and systems can be designed to help reduce flooding impacts. Stormwater harvesting systems require large tanks to store water.
City of Melbourne has six stormwater harvesting systems including Fitzroy Gardens.
Highly treated wastewater can be used for a range of non-drinking water uses.
Treatment of wastewater uses high amounts of energy but provides a constant supply of water, reducing the need for storage tanks. The availability of this alternative water source also depends on the water retailer.
Wastewater can be treated at a local scale by removing sewage from mains and treating it in a sewer mining plant to produce high- quality recycled water.
Sewer mining plants use high amounts of energy but provide a constant supply of water, reducing the need for storage tanks.
Victoria’s largest underground water recycling facility is located in Yarra Park, directly outside the MCG.
Melbourne Water and water retailers are working closely with local government to plan and make sure we have the water we need now and in the future. This planning is currently underway as Greater Melbourne will need additional water within the next ten years.
This involves planning for a range of water solutions including increasing manufactured water, like desalinated water, and investing in local government integrated water management projects, like stormwater and recycled water.
More information about Greater Melbourne’s water supply challenge can be found at the Water for Life website and in Greater Melbourne’s Water for Life Strategy.
Desalination is the removal of salt from seawater. The Victorian Desalination Plan can deliver 150GL per year which is about one-third of Greater Melbourne’s current demand. To provide the future volume of water required, especially in times of drought, a range of solutions will be needed including local stormwater, rainwater and recycled water projects that reduce demand on the Greater Melbourne system.
We aim to use water that matches the quality needed for its use to ensure it is safe for both park users and vegetation. Our trees and open spaces generally need water that is filtered and free of pathogens, so we apply best practice approaches to treating the water we use.
The city’s groundwater and aquifers are generally too saline to be used as a resource.
City of Melbourne practices Integrated Water Management which considers all aspects of the water cycle in projects across the city. Through this approach we aim to reduce flooding, reduce pollution in waterways and increase our water security. For example, the Stormwater Harvesting System at Lincoln Square in Carlton also provides flood storage, reducing flood impacts further down the catchment.
For more information see our Municipal Integrated Water Management Plan.
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners
The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.
We accept the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and are committed to walking together to build a better future.
