A City of Sydney recycled water project – which harvests and treats up to 850 million litres of stormwater a year – has won a 2016 Good Design Award.
The stormwater runoff that is reused annually is the equivalent of 340 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The water is used to irrigate the 44-hectare parkland and supply water to a neighbouring depot.
Elevated terracotta pipes release the cleansed water into the park’s main pond, and have become a popular waterscape feature for visitors.
The project has won the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences category in the Good Design Awards – a prize given to products that have the potential to make a significant improvement to the quality of health, wellbeing or the environment.
“This is the City’s biggest environmental project to date and brought together design, science and sustainability to create a significant new piece of green infrastructure,” said Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
“It not only improves overall water quality and habitat, it also educates residents and visitors on the importance of water management by allowing park visitors to connect to the concept of water capture and cleansing in a beautiful setting.”
Under the water harvesting plan, stormwater is captured, stored and then treated to deliver a new sustainable water supply to the wetlands, Sydney Park, and potentially for nearby industrial use.
There is also potential for other water users across the local area to access the clean water.
Director of Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Dolla Merrillees, described the Sydney Park water re-use development as a groundbreaking project.
“We have selected a project which highlights important contemporary issues such as sustainability and social innovation, and addresses the increasingly critical issue of our natural resources,” said Ms Merrillees.
“This community-focused project illustrates how Australian designers are successfully responding to ‘real world’ problems, by planning our future cities and urban environment with a sense of social responsibility and purpose.”
The City’s water reuse project brought together Sydney firms Turf Design Studio, Environmental Partnership, Alluvium, Dragonfly and Turpin+Crawford Studio, who completed the two year project in October 2015.
The $11.2 million Sydney Park upgrade was co-funded by the City and the federal government.
