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“National Water Week is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that access to clean water is hugely important to every aspect of our lives and the success of our communities as well,” says Rebecca Sayles, senior engineer asset strategy at TasWater.
This year's theme is; Water for me, Water for all. “The idea behind the theme is to encourage young people in our communities to think about how we use water and can protect this resource,” adds Dr Sayles.
As the state’s mains water and sewerage service provider, TasWater manage the complete urban water cycle, “so that’s from catchment to tap, and from toilet to sewage treatment plants.”
To supply safe drinking water to the population, “We take water from rivers, reservoirs and ground water, treat it at our water treatment plants and make it safe to drink.” They also use a few different methods to treat the drinking water. “It would vary depending on where we get the water from. In some systems we will have a membrane filtration plant. Other systems would be a traditional treatment so clarification, filtration and disinfection.”
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The concept of water as an important resource doesn’t stop there. Some used water is recycled and treated to a standard that makes it suitable for irrigation.
As for managing the drinking water, “In Tassie the main rainfall occurs on the western side of the state, we have really reliable rainfall there. But the central and eastern parts of the state are comparably dry. So that plays a big role in the management of the resource,” because the demand for drinking water is greater in these areas.
Additionally, “over Christmas some of our smaller towns become very popular with tourists which significantly increases demand.” And further adding to the challenge, “we get variable rainfall, and increasingly with climate change, we’re seeing more sudden periods of high-intensity rainfall, then longer periods of drier weather.”
TasWater therefore does long-term planning to manage supply against anticipated demand, and the needs of the environment from which the water is taken.
You can play your part too by using water more wisely. “We’ve got a Save Each Drop webpage on our website, which gives you some tips on how everyone can take action to protect our water resource.” Ideas include watering by hand at certain times of day, adding mulch to the garden to retain soil moisture, and using a broom rather than a hose.
Dr Sayles says the idea is “To get people to put more consideration into the value of [water]. It’s easy to take it for granted.”