UNSW has cut its water consumption by a third in the last seven years and is planning to cut this significantly again over the next four years. On many parts of the campus, drinking (potable) water has been replaced with bore water drawn from the underground Botany aquifer on which the University sits. UNSW uses a borewater recharge system, which ensures this aquifer is properly managed.
Read about UNSW's Water Saving Action Plan here.
Read about UNSW's Water Saving Action Plan here.
The University has devised a system to catch 70 percent of the stormwater on the campus, the equivalent of 64 Olympic swimming pools (an Olympic swimming pool contains at least 2.5 million litres of water) or 160 million litres of water, and returns it to the groundwater table via the recharge system.
Other campus water saving features include:
Waterless urinals. 35 have already been installed with more to follow.
Timed-flow taps. Each tap saves an estimated 20,000 litres of water a year.
A water treatment plant, which is being built on the western side of the campus to enable borewater to be used for air conditioning cooling towers and other applications requiring treated water. It alone will save 44 Olympic swimming pools of water a year.
Underground leak detection in pipes, which amounts to approximately 10 percent of total UNSW consumption.
In dollar terms alone, UNSW made water savings of over $100,000 in 2007 compared to 2006.