City West Water and the Moonee Valley City Council have worked together on a $1million water recycling project in Aberfeldie (VIC).
The project, located at the Afton Street Conservation Wetlands, will provide a stormwater for irrigation to support local sport and recreation facilities. This will save up to 20million litres of drinking water every year.
State Member for Niddrie, Ben Carroll, recently launched the project and said stormwater from nearby streets will be collected, treated and then used to irrigate Maribyrnong Park, Aberfeldie Park and Clifton Park without the use of drinking water.
“This area has been blessed with some of the highest standard sporting and recreation facilities, and it’s great to see investment in these vital community assets,” Mr Carroll said.
“Communities are often measured by the standard of sporting, recreation and green open space, and this project will ensure that Maribyrnong Park, Aberfeldie Park and Clifton Park will remain green all year round without using a drop of precious drinking water,”
“One lesson we learned from the drought was the impact that the loss of useable sporting and recreation facilities had on communities- and that’s the driver behind this project- securing water for irrigation, irrespective of prevailing weather conditions or water restrictions,” Mr Carroll said.
The project saw construction of more than 2.7 kilometres of pipelines from the Afton Street Conservation Wetlands that capture stormwater from houses and streets across a 200 hectare area. The wetlands divert stormwater and runoff from Smileys Creek, subjecting it to natural treatment processes to remove litter and waste particles.
Once water has been treated, it is stored in the wetlands until being pumped through the new pipelines to existing irrigation systems already in place at each of the recreation facilities.
“Initiatives like this stormwater recycled project make the most of water resources that are available to us, and provide the community with a secure source of water that will enable us to maintain the facilities here in Aberfeldie to first class standard,” Mr Carroll said.
