Water Campaign™ case study

To complete Milestone 1 of the Water Campaign™, Council conducted an inventory of water consumption at Council-owned sites. The inventory findings revealed that Prahran Market was a high water-use site, and a subsequent review of water data from South East Water maintained this finding.

With the prolonged drought and increasing strain on potable water resources it has been Council's priority to implement water saving actions, demonstrated in the Sustainable Water Management Strategy developed for milestones 2 and 3 in which Council committed to reducing its water use by 50% from 2000/01 levels by 2010.

Given the potential for large water savings the Prahran Market was seen as a great opportunity to help secure current and future water needs.

This project was inline with Council’s strategy, which states that it will ‘install rainwater tanks for toilet flushing, cleaning and/or irrigation in all Council properties where appropriate.’

An additional 5000-litre rainwater tank has been located adjacent to the market plant nursery and is used to irrigate plant stock.

A risk management plan was developed in conjunction with market Management and Council’s Environmental Health Department.

The plan ensures that ongoing maintenance occurs, that the storage tanks and UV treatment systems are operational and that the water quality is at Class A standard.

The quality of the water is important as the market business is based around the sale of fresh produce and this cannot be compromised.

Maintenance checks are completed as part of the Prahran Market’s Operations Supervisor’s daily tasks.

Ongoing maintenance requirements include:

• UV filter changes
• tank filter changes
• water testing
• leakage repairs.

The market was retrofitted with water efficient devices to further reduce water consumption. These included the installation of:

• timers in the butchers’ section of the market which switch off the running of hot water while not in use
• dual flush toilets
• low flow urinals
• AAA tap ware
• flow control valves.

The final component of the project was an education program using signage and group discussions aimed at market staff, stallholders and patrons. The program was designed to:

• introduce new water management practices at the market and in people’s personal lives
• highlight the importance of water conservation and resource management
• build a sense of responsibility and ownership for the management of available water resources
  
• educate about the environmental benefits of minimising discharge of pollutants to the stormwater system.

Ongoing maintenance requirements include:

• UV filter changes
• tank filter changes
• water testing
• leakage repairs.

The market was retrofitted with water efficient devices to further reduce water consumption. These included the installation of:

• timers in the butchers’ section of the market which switch off the running of hot water while not in use
• dual flush toilets
• low flow urinals
• AAA tap ware
• flow control valves.

The final component of the project was an education program using signage and group discussions aimed at market staff, stallholders and patrons. The program was designed to:

• introduce new water management practices at the market and in people’s personal lives
• highlight the importance of water conservation and resource management
• build a sense of responsibility and ownership for the management of available water resources
  
• educate about the environmental benefits of minimising discharge of pollutants to the stormwater system.

Tanks

Due to the narrow and shallow dimensions of the proposed tank site it was decided that the tanks would need to be specially constructed to meet requirements. Doing so ensured installation of the correct system, however, it also created a further delay in manufacturing and meant that the tanks were placed on back order.

During this time the site had to be prepared and kept on standby on a daily basis as Council was to be given only 24 hours notice before tank delivery.

Twenty tanks were originally allocated for the underground location beneath the market floor. However the final design would only allow for 18 tanks so the additional two were installed in other locations at the market.  In retrospect water bladders would have been more suitable for the underground location as they would have increased the storage capacity and provided the market with greater levels of alternate water sources.