Acting Premier John Thwaites today released figures from the State Government’s 26 biggest water users across Melbourne, showing hundreds of millions of litres have been saved since 2000/2001. The figures released for the first time today are part of the ‘Top 200’ industrial water users list which includes 17 hospitals, Melbourne Zoo and the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. For sites that were in full operation in 2000/2001, a saving of 400 million litres per year has been achieved.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Acting Premier John Thwaites today released figures from the State Government’s 26 biggest water users across Melbourne, showing hundreds of millions of litres have been saved since 2000/2001.
The figures released for the first time today are part of the ‘Top 200’ industrial water users list which includes 17 hospitals, Melbourne Zoo and the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.
For sites that were in full operation in 2000/2001, a saving of 400 million litres per year has been achieved.
“This means major government water users who have been taking part in the Top 200 program since 2000/2001 have saved 12.8 per cent on their water use,” Mr Thwaites said.
On top of this, Royal Melbourne Hospital alone stands to save a further 60 million litres per year through the installation of water smart cooling towers.
Speaking at the hospital with Health Minister Bronwyn Pike, Mr Thwaites said Australian-made 3C Coolers would be installed to replace traditional cooling towers.
“Ten new cooling towers have already been installed at Royal Melbourne and when the remaining ten are installed later this year, air-conditioning water use will drop by about 80 per cent.”
Minister Pike said she was pleased by the water saving performance of public hospitals, with all hospitals on the list having implemented water saving measures.
“Our hospitals are always looking for innovative ways to save water and the new cooling towers being installed here at Royal Melbourne Hospital are a good example of this,” Ms Pike said.
“Another example is the 11 per cent saving achieved at the Austin Hospital through re-use of wastewater and rainwater harvesting.
“Water usage at three hospitals, including the Royal Children’s, has gone up in line with increased patient capacity, however we expect water conservation to improve significantly in the future.”
Mr Thwaites said Melbourne’s water authorities had been working with top industrial water users – including the government sites - as part of the Bracks Government’s ‘Top 200’ program which has recently been expanded to include all industrial customers using ten million litres or more a year.
“The expansion of the program means we will reach the top 1500 water using businesses in the next three years, which will save about five billion litres each year,” Mr Thwaites said.
Under legislation introduced by the Bracks Government last year, water use figures, by band, for the entire Top 200 water users will be made available from this year.
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