Melbourne's Water Usage : Melbourne Water's Conserve Water

Melbourne's water supply catchments cover more than 157,000 hectares of natural forest in the Yarra Ranges, much of which is preserved for the sole purpose of harvesting water. There are 9 water storage reservoirs with a total capacity of approximately 1,773,000 ML. Research shows that Melbourne is widely regarded as having high quality drinking water. There are a number of reasons for this, the main one being the purity of the source. Melbourne's water supply catchments are closed to the public to protect them - and the water - from human contamination.

Melbourne's Upper Yarra reservoir

An extensive supply system links the reservoirs with the city's three retail water companies and their customers. Melbourne Water operates and maintains about 1,018 kilometres of distribution mains; 361.5 kilometres of aqueducts, siphons and tunnels; 55 service reservoirs at 36 local sites; 63 water treatment plants and 23 pump stations.

In an average year, metropolitan Melbourne consumes around 500 GL of water. This represents around 250,000 Olympic size swimming pools based on FINA regulations (FR1 to FR14). That's a lot of water. If everybody in metropolitan Melbourne cut just 1% of their yearly water consumption, there would be enough water saved to fill 2,500 Olympic size swimming pools.

The building of new dams is not considered a desirable option for Melbourne for securing future water supplies due to environmental considerations, the difficulty in sourcing new catchments, and the financial costs involved. So as Melbourne grows, it is important that we find ways to ensure that Melbourne's thirst for water doesn't grow along with it.

Our approach to water resource management for Melbourne is a more holistic approach aimed at developing sustainable supply and demand management solutions incorporating innovations in technology, environment and community issues.