WA Water Minister Mia Davies has announced the completion of a $5 million upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant in Kalbarri, WA.
Ms Davies said the upgrade increased the treatment capacity of the plant by 20 per cent and improved the quality of recycled water that is produced and made available for local irrigation.
“The $5million upgrade increased treatment capacity from 800,000 litres per day, to one million litres per day,” Ms Davies said.
“In peak tourist season, the population of Kalbarri can reach 5,000 so this upgrade means the plant will be able to keep up with peak demand.
“It has also improved the quality of the treated wastewater produced by the plant, which is used to irrigate the local golf course. Last year more than 142 million litres of precious scheme water was saved by using recycled water to irrigate the golf course.
“These upgrades mean this high quality recycled water can potentially be used for more recycling initiatives in the future, further reducing demand on scheme water.”
The Water Corporation is involved with 80 recycling schemes across the State, with about 21 billion litres of water recycled in 2012-13. To put that into perspective, that is the equivalent of 9,333 Olympic-sized swimming pools of scheme water saved.
Work on the upgrades in Kalbarri began in June 2013 and was completed in December 2013.
The project was jointly funded by the Water Corporation and the Federal Government’s National Water Security Plan for Cities and Towns.
About Kalbarri
- Like most towns in Mid-West WA, Kalbarri is supplied by groundwater from a local aquifer
- In 2012-13, there were 1,029 residential connections in Kalbarri with average water use of 292,000 litres per connection
- In 2012-13, Water Corporation recycled more than 142 million litres of water in Kalbarri and 21 billion litres State-wide
