As part of our commitment to saving potable water, Council has broken soil on the construction of our 14th storm water harvesting system in Randwick City. This system will be our biggest harvesting system to date.

The project will involve the construction of two one-million litre underground water storage tanks and will include filtration units, pumps, and an automatic irrigation system. The water harvested from the system will provide irrigation for:

• Arthur Byrne Reserve
• Broadarrow Reserve
• Jack Vanny Reserve
• Maroubra Beach
• John Shore Reserve
• Murranborah Reserve

Additionally, it will provide water for the toilets at Maroubra Surf Club and South Maroubra amenities, once they’re complete. As well as financial savings, the system will save up to 40 million litres of potable water every year, which equals around 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

Randwick Mayor Danny Said: “We are incredibly excited about this project. Council is committed to saving water and projects like this one are evidence of that commitment.

“As we’ll be capturing stormwater run-off and filtering it to be used elsewhere, this project will not only save potable water and save money, but by default, it will also improve the water quality at Maroubra beach – it’s a win, win, win,” Mayor Said explained.

The project broke ground earlier this week at Arthur Byrne Reserve, where Stage One of the works began. This involves the underground construction of the water tanks and surrounding pipework that will be laid.

The project is broken down into the following stages, with plans for the project to be completed by the end of the year:

• Stage 1 – Construction of tanks at Arthur Byrne Reserve and surrounding pipework
• Stage 2A – Treatment room upgrade and Arthur Byrne Reserve and pipework
• Stage 2B - Western pipework from treatment room to Muraborah Reserve and irrigation system
• Stage 3A – Northern offtake construction and pipework along Marine Parade
• Stage 3B – Pipework from northern offtake to Jack Vanny Reserve

Council has identified a disused shed that will be used to hold the new treatment facilities and are hoping to achieve as little disruption to the community as possible during construction.

Mayor Danny Said: “Council has been working on this plan for a long time with our environmental engineers, project managers and builders - and to see it get started and break ground is a really exciting time.”