Media Release
September 17, 2003
Recycled water flows into the laundry
Residents in the Mawson Lakes community are highly supportive of water recycling in general, with more than half willing to use reclaimed water in their laundries, a University of South Australia study shows.
This community acceptance is an important finding as more than 20 per cent of most in-house water is being used in the laundry, according to Professor Jennifer McKay, Director of UniSA’s Water Law and Policy Group, and researcher in both the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Irrigation Futures and the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, based at UniSA.
Her study looks at the attitudes to reclaimed water usage by residents in Mawson Lakes, an innovative green fields development with a dual water supply that makes use of reclaimed water inside the house for toilet flushing and outside for lawn and garden watering and car washing.
One of three such systems in the country and a rarity worldwide, the dual water supply is expected to be operational in early 2004. Reclaimed water will be sourced from storm water and wastewater generated from the Mawson Lakes development and treated to class A standard before being returned to residents.
"While Mawson Lakes residents believe in the importance of recycling to save water, the study reveals that their support for using reclaimed water decreases as the proposed use becomes increasingly personal - from 99 per cent support for irrigating lawns and gardens to less than one per cent in favour of drinking reclaimed water, but this is slightly less evident for younger people than for those in the over 50 age group," Professor McKay says.
"Younger residents agree more strongly than older residents that the environmental benefits of the dual water supply are more important than financial benefits. The study also shows that young people have a greater understanding of the need to conserve water, given the state’s severe water shortage, and are more supportive of the use of recycled water for potable purposes such as drinking in the future, providing appropriate quality is guaranteed.
"In addition, the potential to do something positive for the environment motivates younger respondents more so than older respondents to live in suburbs with environmentally sustainable features."
Professor McKay says this result should alert water policy developers of the need to target water conservation education campaigns to older age groups.
"Water reclamation and reuse are becoming increasingly required as an alternate supply of water and in drought-proofing areas, and previous research shows that dual water supply systems have the potential to reduce potable water demand by half," she says.
Other benefits include additional water supply, avoidance of technology expansion, reduced disposal of wastewater to sensitive environments, reduced energy use and economic savings, according to Professor McKay, who is a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation working party on recycling water for the nation’s cities, identifying ways to reduce the demand for potable water.
The Mawson Lakes recycled water project was undertaken by UniSA researchers Professor McKay, Professor Phil Howlett, Dr John Boland, Adjunct Professor Dennis Mulcahy and PhD student Anna Hurlimann, with support from Roger Farquar (Delfin Lend Lease) and Chris Marles (SA Water). A $280,000 Australian Research Council Linkage Grant funded the research.
Media contact
Geraldine Hinter (08) 8302 0963 or 0417 861 832