The City of Melville has taken out the Local Government Water Efficiency Category of the Western Australian Water awards 2006. Held in Perth in October, the Awards were presented by the Western Australian Department of Water and the Water Corporation.
Melville commenced a water efficiency program in 1999 and has since reduced water usage in public open spaces by 1.9 gigalitres or 1.9 billion litres. This is an average of 12.9 per cent below the Department of Water’s allocation.
To achieve this significant water saving, Melville implementation the following initiatives:
- an automated irrigation monitoring system linked to weather stations
- a regular monitoring and maintenance regime, including irrigation systems audits, flow testing, soil moisture probes, lysimeters, and leaf tissue analysis
- water efficient irrigation design
- water wise plant selection
- use of alternative sources of water
- a sophisticated data management system.
“These initiatives are really innovative ways that the City of Melville has considerably lowered water consumption and saved money and resources,” said City of Melville Mayor, Katherine Jackson. “The combination of a dryer climate with low annual rainfall means that Western Australia needs to find smarter ways to optimise our use of water. Melville is at the forefront of Local Governments in its practices to be responsible in water usage. We are strongly committed to using sustainable methods to conserve this precious resource.”
Melville’s project was one of more than 80 entered into the award’s 14 categories. Categories included Rural and Remote Projects, Community Partnerships, Water Recycling, Waterwise Business and Waterwise Schools.
The City of Mandurah was also highly commended in the Local Government category for its work with Cedar Woods Properties Ltd.
