Supporting councils and businesses to save water
The water utility is offering support to help customers better understand and manage their water use, identify and fix leaks early and explore other ways to save water.
WaterSmart focuses on industries providing vital services to the community and those with the potential to make substantial water savings. These include councils, hospitals, aged care facilities and selected large industrial users.
General Manager Community and Strategy at Yarra Valley Water, Tiffany White, said the program involves working with customers to carry out a comprehensive one-off water audit and provide digital water monitoring devices.
Known as data loggers, the devices attach to water meters to record water use every 15 minutes.
“This data is made available to customers through a secure online portal which gives organisations near real time visibility of their water use.”
“This enables them to identify and fix leaks and find opportunities for equipment and fixture upgrades, as well as exploring ways to reduce their water use,” Ms White said.
Ms White added that “the program helps organisations be more sustainable, save money on their water bills and protect water supplies for the future.”
Yarra Valley Water has recently worked with the City of Whittlesea to install 10 data loggers at council facilities including sports ovals and reserves, recreation centres and the Mill Park Leisure Centre which has three swimming pools.
In the last six months, the data provided has enabled the Council to identify leaks and take timely action to fix them. At one sports pavilion, the data loggers spotted a problem with a valve, saving 150 litres of water an hour.
City of Whittlesea CEO Craig Lloyd said it would have taken much longer to identify these leaks without the data loggers.
“They’ve given us near real-time data about our water consumption,” Mr Lloyd said. “They’ve also allowed us to take quick actions to save water that would otherwise have been wasted – and save money off bills in the process.”
Mr Lloyd said as well as identifying quick fixes, the data loggers are helping staff to investigate other potential causes of water use spikes at Council facilities and plan for improvements.
“The WaterSmart program is a great initiative that can help organisations save water and money off their bills,” he said.
WaterSmart is funded by the Victorian Government and delivered by water corporations to support sustainable water management practices.
For more information go to WaterSmart.