THE AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE October 2019 Volume 3 No 2
WATER LITERACY ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITIES TO COMMUNICATE THE VALUE OF WATER
Resource recovery and the water sector
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How Australian water businesses can carry expertise abroad
Hydro power: what’s the big deal?
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jects o r p 5 an 1 installed h t e Mor essfully stralia! in Au succ
Outer Layer: Abrasion-resistant PE sheath Kevlar® Fabric: Seamless, woven aramid fibres Inner Layer: Media-specific based on PE or TPU
Trenchless rehabilitation of water mains and sewer rising mains • • • • •
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Cost savings of up to 40% compared to sliplining Installation speeds of up to 10 metres per minute Up to 2,500 metres per pull Small pits, minor installation footprint Maximum capacity (low wall thickness of 6 mm for PN 16) Increase operating pressure independently of host pipe Avoid cost for disposal of asbestos cement mains AS/NZS 4020 : 2005 certified
Raedlinger Primus Line Pty Ltd Mr Heiko Manzke Level 6, 8 Spring Street Sydney, NSW 2000 · Australia Phone: 07 318 15721 heiko.manzke@primusline.com
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Press information, 25 July 2019
Rehabilitating over 100 metres of vertical pipeline in Sydney’s underground Special case for Primus Line®: Normally covering long distances, turning around bends with ease and applied in sensitive environments, the system for trenchless pipe rehabilitation has this time been installed vertically. For a sewer main rehabilitation project, Primus Line® entered Sydney’s tunnels and subterranean chambers for wastewater treatment and water recycling. The North Head Wastewater Treatment Plant is the second largest of the wastewater treatment and water recycling plants in greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra and serves about one million people. The majority of North Head’s processing is completed underground. The core of the plant is based in tunnels and subterranean chambers located up to 100 metres below the surface of the Sydney Harbour National Park in Manly. A DN 150 sump pump pipeline transporting sewage from a tunnel up to the surface was leaking at several points and therefore needed rehabilitation. With several other pipelines, this pipe is running through a very narrow vertical shaft which is only accessible by cramped ladders. Replacing this pipeline would have been a very time-consuming and complicated, if not impossible, undertaking. Hence, Sydney Water decided to reline the existing main with the Primus Line® system. The Primus Line technology has already been used for several other potable water rehabilitation projects with Sydney Water and is also on the list of deemed-to-comply products for pipeline rehabilitation of Sydney Water. This is the first project where Sydney Water used the Primus Line® system in a sewer main. Sydney Water assigned the works to Primus Line’s local partner company Interflow. In a first step, the pipe was drained and small pipe cutouts were being created to grant access to the main. Coarse cleaning was performed by water jetting and the clean inner surface was subsequently verified by inserting a CCTV from the top of the pipeline. The rehabilitation itself was performed in two sections of 91 and 15 metres.
The Primus Liner arrived pre-folded on a round transport reel with a diameter of 1,400 millimetres. As the pipe to be rehabilitated was located in a constricted shaft which is only accessible through low walking tunnels and by narrow ladders, the transport reel had to be stored more than 75 metres away from the access point to the pipeline. The team decided to unwind the liner from the transport reel, unroll it along the tunnel and drag the Primus Liner to the access point. The pre-folded Primus Liner DN 150 PN 25 was being fed into the pipeline from top to bottom, secured throughout the entire installation process by ropes and lashing straps so that the liner would not fall down into the shaft. The team used a pulley system to lower all necessary tools and fittings from the top of the shaft to the pipeline’s access points. After inflating the pre-folded Primus Liner with compressed air, flange adapters and Primus Line PN 16 end fittings were installed. The entire installation of Primus Line® could be realized within two working days.
A tunnel system for wastewater treatment crosses Sydney’s underground.
End fittings connect the new Primus Line section with the existing pipeline.
Contact for press enquiries: Rädlinger primus line GmbH Jakob Dreher Press and Public Relations Kammerdorfer Straße 16 D-93413 Cham
The pre-folded Primus Line is inflated with compressed air.
Tel.: +49 (0)9971 8088-1502 Fax: +49 (0)9971 8088-9999 presse@raedlinger.de www.primusline.com
About Primus Line® Primus Line® is a flexible sliplining solution for the trenchless rehabilitation of pressure pipelines referenced in EN ISO 11295:2018-06. The system consists of a flexible Kevlar ®-reinforced liner and specially developed end fittings. The liner is self-supporting and not attached to the host pipe – an annular space remains. Developed by experienced engineers, the system is suitable for different media such as oil, gas and water.
Overview of the rehabilitated pipeline sections
The Primus Line® system is certified in many countries – for example Australia, the USA, Germany, Canada and Israel – and meets the highly demanding standards for the transportation of drinking water worldwide, such as NSF/ANSI 61, AS/NZS 4020:2005, SS375:2015 or BS 6920. Primus Line® is available in nominal diameters from DN 150 to DN 500.
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WATER IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE.
That’s reason enough for us to make hygienic drinking water our highest priority.
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Viega. Connected in quality.
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CO N T EN TS
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FEATURES
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MARION SCRYMGOUR Northern Land Council CEO Marion Scrymgour shares her thoughts on the future of Indigenous water rights. LUC & SHARNA Sticking it out pays off for a lot of mentoring pairs, this one in particular. AUSTRALIAN WATER AWARDS 2019 We ask the 2019 Australian Water Award winners to reflect on what community means for them and their work. NATIONAL WATER WEEK 2019 National Water Week is just around the corner. Here, Current asks some of AWA’s Principal Members to share how they are changing the world through water. WATER LITERACY Lack of water literacy within communities can have a big impact on utilities and water organisations. How can the water sector support communities on their journey to water awakening? SAFETY IN NUMBERS How is the water sector working to achieve safety through innovative collaborations? WASTE NOT, WANT NOT Water businesses around Australia and New Zealand are homing in on resource recovery.
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE Current takes a closer look at the Australian Water Association’s international trade platform. WATER, INTERRUPTED Managing community disruption is no easy feat. What can we learn from analysing events of the past? COMMUNITIES IN DISTRESS Climate change is all-too-real for many of Australia’s regional communities, and water utilities are stepping up to offer social support. HYDRO: BATTERY POWER With Australia investing further in hydro-power in the coming years, Current stops to take a look at the industry at present. MONEY TELESCOPE University of Melbourne researchers assess the hidden costs and benefits of Integrated Urban Water Management initiatives.
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From the Chief Executive
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Sustainable Development Goals
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Climate resilience
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Demand forecasting
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Drinking water
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Salt water ingress
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Asset management
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Operational analytics
EVENTS
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Internet of Things
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Liveability
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WSUD
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Machine learning
From the President’s desk Association news What’s online?
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TECHNICAL
Marion Scrymgour Mentoring spotlight Growth in South Asia Pacific Liquid labs The last drop
Australian Water Awards 2019 National Water Week 2019 Events calendar Out and about
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T H E AUST R A L I A N WAT E R ASSO C I AT I O N M AG A Z I N E
CHIEF EXECUTIVE Jonathan McKeown Email: jmckeown@awa.asn.au National Manager – Events and Marketing: Kirsty Blades Email: kblades@awa.asn.au Marketing Coordinator: Melania Berehovy Email: mberehovy@awa.asn.au TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Dr Robbert van Oorschot (Chair), GHD; Ted Gardner; Dr Andrew Bath, Water Corporation; Michael Chapman, GHD; Dr Dharma Dharmabalan, TasWater; Robert Ford (rtd), Central Highlands Water; Dr Lionel Ho, Allwater; Karen Rouse, Water Research Australia (WaterRA); Dr Tim Muster, CSIRO Land and Water; David Power, BECA Consultants.
D m p a h t l c n m h w p m
Water e-Journal Coordinator: Sharon Hoang Email: journal@awa.asn.au
Current is the official biannual magazine for members of the Australian Water Association. 655 Pacific Highway, St Leonards, Sydney, NSW 2065 Phone: (02) 9436 0055 Email: info@awa.asn.au
369a Darling St, Balmain, Sydney, NSW 2041 Managing Editor: James Chalmers Email: james@mahlab.co Editor: Cecilia Harris Email: cecilia@mahlab.co Creative Director: Gareth Allsopp Production Manager: Kathy Little Senior Account Manager: Kim Richards Email: kim@mahlab.co Advertising Manager: Val Glendinning Email: val@mahlab.co EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: Acceptance of editorial submissions is at the discretion of the editors and editorial board. TECHNICAL PAPERS: Submissions should be 3000–4000 words long and accompanied by relevant graphics, tables and images. To submit a paper or for more detailed submission guidelines, please email journal@awa.asn.au NEWS AND FEATURES: News tips, submissions and press releases should be sent to cecilia@mahlab.co COPYRIGHT: Current is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced in any format without the written permission of AWA. Email cecilia@mahlab.co
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DISCLAIMER: The Association assumes no responsibility for opinions or statements of fact expressed by contributors or advertisers. Mention of particular brands, products or processes does not constitute an endorsement.
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From the Chief Executive
WORKING TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS OF STRATEGY’22 The Annual General Meeting of the Association has just been held in our newly refurbished Sydney offices. Members were presented with highlights and achievements from our Annual Review, which is available on our AWA website. The Association produced a healthy financial surplus, allowing us to upgrade our operating systems in financial management, event registration, and a new intranet to better service our members. While we saw massive growth in our digital engagement, it is interesting to note that the Association’s branch events and Ozwater’19 achieved record levels of attendance and industry support. In this digital age, the Association remains a vital conduit for people to connect directly with each other. Our International Program has now expanded across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia with the financial support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This program is improving the lives of thousands of people in Asia, contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals by facilitating drinking water to disadvantaged people in remote areas, and transferring Australian water expertise to water utilities across Asia. Over the last year alone more than 800 utility employees have been involved in our Water Utility Improvement Program. Members who have joined our trade missions have now generated business valued at more than $40M. Promoting and connecting Australia’s water capabilities to international markets is specified in the Association’s constitution. We are now delivering this with purpose and sound results. Probably the biggest achievement last financial year was the development and launch of Strategy’22, a new 3-year strategic plan to inspire and drive a sustainable water future. Developing the strategy involved conducting a full member survey and meaningfully engaging our branches, staff, and Strategic Advisory Council with the Board of Directors. Strategy’22 was announced by our new President Carmel Krogh OAM to wide acclaim and support. The new strategy aims to share, connect, and inspire as the Association pursues its objectives to seek more partnerships, expand our reach, and embrace diversity and inclusion. There has never been a greater need to inspire and drive a sustainable water future for Australia. Concerns about dangerously low dam levels, landscapes ravaged by drought, and fast approaching ‘day zero’ for several regional towns has elevated water security back into public awareness. These difficult times provide us with an opportunity to advocate the need to keep all sources of water on the table, including water recycling, desalination, managed aquifer recharge, and properly policed use of surface water. The Association accommodates a broad range of passionately held approaches to managing these different water sources, helping to inform a balanced debate on the science, technology, and economics behind different solutions to our water challenges. Last month I announced that I would step down as Chief Executive in May next year. In my remaining time as CEO, I am looking forward to working with the Board and staff to provide a transparent and constructive period of transition to support a new CEO. Throughout the past six years as Chief Executive it has been particularly rewarding to witness the Association’s financial and cultural turnaround made possible with the introduction of many changes. These would not have been possible without the professional dedication of our small but talented staff and generous volunteers. The organisation is well positioned to embrace new challenges and opportunities into the future.
MEMBERS WHO HAVE JOINED OUR TRADE MISSIONS HAVE NOW GENERATED BUSINESS VALUED AT MORE THAN $40M.
Jonathan McKeown Australian Water Association Chief Executive
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From the President’s desk
ENGAGEMENT FOR MORE RESILIENT COMMUNITIES It was a great honour to take over the Australian Water Association Presidency role at the end of the amazing Ozwater’19 event in May. I want to give my warmest thanks and appreciation to the outgoing President, Francois Gouws, for his massive contribution to the Association and also for his ongoing support to me and to the work of the Association. Francois has been a driving force for the Association as President and his leadership has been the key for our new strategic directions. The launch of our Strategy’22 documents at Ozwater’19 has set the platform for our work over the next three years. Our aspirations to “share, connect and inspire” are already being echoed enthusiastically throughout our events and communications. We are, however, very conscious of the significant amount of work ahead to meet our strategic goals, which include strengthening partnerships, extending our reach, and promoting diversity and inclusion. With parts of the country facing some of the worst drought conditions on record, the challenges for the water industry as a whole are immense. The consequences of the drought and extremely warm temperatures are the stark reality for many urban, regional and rural communities. It is only through stronger partnerships, engagement, understanding and innovation that we can secure sustainable water supplies for the future. Strategy’22 recognises that we need to broaden our conversations into the community, and especially into regional areas, to have a more lasting impact. It is our challenge as water professionals to offer the best science, objectivity, and diverse range of options for all our communities to secure a sustainable water future. We can also imagine a future that truly embraces the depth of cultural knowledge within our First Nations people. The Australian Water Association as an organisation faces the same challenges as many others to keep pace with a fast-changing digital world and to ensure that we can meet the expectations of our members now and into the future. Our dedicated and committed staff are one of the lynchpins of our success and we have been very fortunate to have a forward-thinking CEO in Jonathan McKeown for the past six years to lead the organisation. Jonathan has recently announced that he will be stepping down from the role next year to pursue new opportunities in the commercial sector. I will have more to say about his achievements at a later date, but would like to acknowledge his leadership and professionalism in enabling time for a smooth transition to a new CEO next year.
IT IS OUR CHALLENGE AS WATER PROFESSIONALS TO OFFER THE BEST SCIENCE, OBJECTIVITY AND DIVERSE RANGE OF OPTIONS FOR ALL OUR COMMUNITIES TO SECURE A SUSTAINABLE WATER FUTURE.
Carmel Krogh OAM Australian Water Association President
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Connecting the dots
Waste not want not
Rethinking water challenges during mine remediation
Blockages, overflows, leaks and burst pipes - these daily occurrences affect water utility operations, causing water service delivery disruption, financial loss, environmental impact and reputational risk. How can utilities optimise inspection and infrastructure management plans to ensure the ongoing supply of water and management of wastewater?
Highly saline water is an unavoidable by-product of coal seam gas extraction.
Planning a safe and environmentally-conscious closure of a mine generally starts well before anything has been extracted from the ground.
The role of data in driving operational efficiency and customer satisfaction
The answer lies in data and analytics, delivered through insights and expertise.
Taking the bloom out of algae with SWARM buoy
From coal seam gas byproduct to clean water source
In southern Queensland, a project that turns coal seam gas wastewater into a resource is providing flow-on benefits for the local community and environment. Rather than seeing coal seam gas water as waste to get rid of, Veolia views it as a resource that can be re-used.
Water treatment is a vital part of ensuring there are no ongoing negative environmental impacts once a mine is closed. Veolia works with operators to contain, control and manage these risks.
Algal blooms can affect waterways and human health, which is why early detection is needed. SWARM buoy is a water quality monitoring tool that measures the concentration of different parameters, including dissolved oxygen in a waterway, and feeds this data back to water authorities. Find out how your utility can benefit from the application of machine-learning tools to better predict and prevent water service delivery interruptions.
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Association News
OZWATER’19 WAS OUR BIGGEST EVER We did it again! As an industry we managed to make Ozwater’19 the biggest yet. Including delegates, trade visitors, YWPs and exhibitor staff, we had a total of 4724 attendees – up from 4275 in Brisbane last year! Our keynote presentations were very well received and the technical program provided something for everyone. You can now download the Ozwater’19 papers at www.ozwater.org
THIRST FOR ACTION
AUSTRALIAN STOCKHOLM JUNIOR WATER PRIZE 2020 NOW OPEN
In case you missed it, our Ozwater’20 theme has been announced as ‘Thirst for Action’, which represents the need for continued action to meet the Sustainable Development Goals and the growing demands being placed on water from an environment, population and industrial perspective. Ozwater’20 will take place on 5-7 May 2020 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. To find out more visit www.ozwater.org
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now a budding water scientist or clever inventor? Your teenage son or daughter, niece or nephew could be our next Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize winner! With Australia winning the international Stockholm Junior Water Prize this year, we’re aiming for another winning entry in the Australian competition. Students between 15 and 20 can enter the water science competition which closes on Monday, 16 December. To find out more visit www.awa.asn.au/asjwp 14
www.awa.asn.au
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EXPANDING OUR WATER UTILITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM With the success of our urban Vietnam – Australia Water Utility Improvement Program (WUIP), and the launch of the Indonesia – Australia WUIP in May, we’ve expanded the program to Cambodia and rural Vietnam. The Cambodia – Australia WUIP is between South East Water and three Cambodian water utilities, while the regional Vietnam – Australia WUIP has matched Riverina Water, Singleton Council and Whitsunday Water with three rural water utilities in Vietnam. To learn more about the WUIP visit www.awa.asn.au/WUIP
MAKING A SPLASH FOR NATIONAL WATER WEEK It’s that time of the year again! National Water Week 2019 is a call to action to change the world and help meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There’s a short film competition for primary and high school students asking what actions we can all take to help meet one or two of the SDGs. To find out more visit www.awa.asn.au/nww19
STRATEGY’22: SHARE, CONNECT, INSPIRE
REFRESHED SYDNEY OFFICE Our Sydney office has been given a refresh with a new open-plan layout, extra meeting rooms and a seminar room, which has the capacity to hold events in-house. Around the office we’ve also referenced key messages from our three-year strategic plan to inspire our staff each day.
WELCOME TO OUR NEW PRINCIPAL MEMBERS We’re pleased to welcome three new principal members: Eurofins, an international testing laboratory company; Aurecon, a global engineering, design and consulting company; and SMEC, a major infrastructure projects consulting company.
Our three-year strategic plan was announced at Ozwater’19 by our new President Carmel Krogh OAM. Simply called Strategy’22, the plan is centred around three key values: Share, Connect, Inspire. These play a huge role in how our staff and volunteers operate to provide the greatest value to our members. Under the new strategy, our goals focus on strengthening partnerships, extending our reach and promoting diversity and inclusion. To learn more visit www.awa.asn.au/ strategy22
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Keep up to date with the latest industry and Association developments at watersource.awa.asn.au
TRENDING NOW: DIGITAL NEWS
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Hard hats and hi-vis: Australian safety culture focusing on all the wrong things
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Court finds Kleenex ‘flushable’ wipes not misleading 7392 views
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Here’s why water cycle illustrations need humans in the picture 4671 views
83,645 views
Hard hats and hi-vis: Australian safety culture focusing on all the wrong things
Court finds Kleenex ‘flushable’ wipes not misleading
100% correct. People who have never DONE THE JOB telling people, who do it every day, how to do it. Ridiculous. They obviously don’t mean for it to be that way but that’s the reality of what a lot of companies do.” - JEFFERY KENT
MOST POPULAR E-JOURNAL PAPERS
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Just because something fits down the toilet doesn’t mean you should put it there.” - LUKE RICHTERS
• Calculating the hydraulic efficiency of a constructed wetland • Recreational management theory can help utilities protect reservoirs • Water security levels of service
Here’s why water cycle illustrations need humans in the picture
Also,explaining how the water table works....most people don’t understand how the health of the aquifer affects rivers and streams.” - MINDY CRAIG
• Progressing reconciliation through Indigenous partnerships within Australian water utilities • Applied fluvial geomorphology in the 21st century
www.awa.asn.au
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AWA_A
Putting people first in emergency responses
You can’t plan for the unexpected. But when disaster strikes, having well-established contacts; the ability to mobilise necessary personnel, tools and materials; extensive in-house experience; and a dedicated team provides the best chance of achieving positive outcomes.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake that shook Christchurch, New Zealand, in February 2011 caused mass devastation and claimed 185 lives. The official clean-up and repair phase lasted until 2016, but work continues to renew and rebuild the city’s infrastructure. Interflow, Australasia’s largest pipeline renewal company, was one of the first contractors on site to help restore wastewater and sewage services and repair the damaged pipelines.
ALL HANDS ON DECK
Many of the crew who worked on the repairs
were Christchurch locals and were personally affected by the earthquake. But, according to Blair Telfer, Interflow General Manager – New Zealand, they rallied to assist with the repair operation. “Everyone was keen to work as much as possible to aid in the overall recovery works to get the city back up and running as quickly as we could,” Telfer said. However, local crews did not operate in isolation. Telfer said that, as a large company, Interflow was able to draw on the expertise of staff from across the organisation. “As Australasia’s largest pipeline renewal company, we could call on not only additional personnel resources but also the full technical support of our experts in Australia,” he said. “There were a number of differing projects that were outside the norm that required bespoke design. “By having a team of experienced specialists and engineers in Australia supporting our New Zealand crews, we were able to brainstorm and come up with innovative ideas and then prove that they would be robust and meet design and specification requirements.” Throughout the five-year repair period, Interflow brought 16 of its Australian-based
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staff to Christchurch, and appointed 20 new staff to join the existing 22 Christchurch-based personnel. “The quantum of work to be completed in the short time meant that additional staff had to be employed,” Telfer said. “As trenchless techniques are quite unique and specialised, there are few trained persons. Training had to happen on the job. “Fortunately, Interflow had a team of dedicated technical trainers who provided on-the-job training and certification, which sped up productivity and ensured that high-quality standards were maintained.”
CONTACTING CONNECTIONS
In some emergency situations, acquiring necessary tools and materials can also be challenging. In November 2018, a failure in the City of Gold Coast’s Eastern Force Main – one of two large rising mains that takes sewage from about 200,000 people in the north of the city to the Coombabah Sewage Treatment Plant – was detected. The sewer was immediately diverted as a temporary measure, but wet weather would overload the system; a long-term solution was required as quickly as possible. Primus Liner was selected for the job, however as the material is manufactured in Germany it would have taken at least two weeks to arrive, if the stock was available at all. The worst-case scenario was that it would need to be manufactured from scratch and then transported by sea, which could have taken up to three months. However, according to Will Zillmann, Interflow Manager – Emerging Markets, Interflow’s industry
connections and contacts meant the necessary tools and materials were procured quickly. “The Interflow employee who was contacted by the City of Gold Coast knew that Sydney Water had some additional stock of Primus Line that they weren’t using, which was the right size, the right length and the right class of liner for the job,” Zillmann said. “We also knew that Queensland Urban Utilities owned the tools that were required. So, we contacted Sydney Water and Queensland Urban Utilities, who were only too pleased to help in this emergency situation. “These industry connections and relationships were key to getting the materials and tools we needed to complete this job, which saved on freight costs and meant Interflow could begin renewing the pipes within days of the fault being detected.” The Eastern Force Main project was recently awarded the 2019 Australasian Society of Trenchless Technology Rehabilitation Project of the Year Award. This recognises innovation, advancements in technology, environmental benefits and HSE benefits in rehabilitation projects that use trenchless technology. Zillmann said it was a prime example of Interflow challenging the status quo, by providing a trenchless solution. “This was the first time the technology had been used in the southern hemisphere,” he said. “Keeping project efficiency and community relations as top priorities, we successfully restored the main within two weeks of initial failure – just in time for the Gold Coast’s peak tourist season.”
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THE AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE
I N D U S T R Y F E AT U R E S INSIGHTS INTO AND ANALYSIS OF THE FORCES SHAPING THE AUSTRALIAN WATER INDUSTRY.
MARION SCRYMGOUR Northern Land Coucil CEO Marion Scrymgour shares her thoughts on Indigenous water rights.
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WASTE NOT, WANT NOT Water businesses around Australia and New Zealand are homing in on resource recovery.
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LUC & SHARNA Sticking it out pays off for this Association Mentoring Program pair.
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INTERNATIONAL TRADE Current looks at the Australian Water Association’s international trade platform.
AUSTRALIAN WATER AWARDS We asked the 2019 champions to reflect on how community has played a role in their success.
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WATER, INTERRUPTED What can the Australian water sector learn from analysing community disruption events of the past?
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NATIONAL WATER WEEK Some of AWA’s Principal Members share how they’re changing the world through water.
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COMMUNITIES IN DISTRESS We take a look at how water utilities are supporting regional communities in distress.
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WATER LITERACY How can the water industry garner water literacy within the communities it serves?
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SAFETY IN NUMBERS How the water sector is working to achieve safety through innovation.
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HYDRO: BATTERY POWER What’s the reality of hydropower generation in Australia? MONEY TELESCOPE The hidden costs and benefits of Integrated Urban Water Management initiatives.
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Marion Scrymgour
WATER FOR COUNTRY THE NORTHERN LAND COUNCIL’S NEW CEO MARION SCRYMGOUR DISCUSSES HEALTHY COMMUNITIES AND SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON THE STATE OF INDIGENOUS WATER RIGHTS IN AUSTRALIA. As told to Cecilia Harris
Australian Water Association: Tell us about the Northern Land Council – what are its aims and what are some of the current community-focussed initiatives facilitated by the Council? Marion Scrymgour: The Northern Land Council (NLC) was established in the mid-1970s to assist Aboriginal people in the top end of the Northern Territory to acquire and manage their traditional lands and seas. Today, we have grown to become one of the peak Aboriginal bodies in the Northern Territory. Key constituents of the NLC are traditional owners and the residents on Aboriginal lands. More than 35,000 Aboriginal people live within the NLC’s area. While many of our constituents live in major towns, two-thirds of the Aboriginal people in the NLC area are spread across almost 200 communities, ranging in size from small family outstations to settlements of up to 3000 people. The majority of Aboriginal people living within our region speak an Aboriginal language as their first language and traditional Aboriginal law is practiced in many communities within our region. Many major resource developments are taking place on Aboriginal land or land that is subject to Native Title. These developments include mining and exploration projects, gas pipelines, army training areas, national parks and pastoral activities. The challenge for the NLC is to ensure that social, economic and cultural benefits flow to Aboriginal people from these developments. Aboriginal peoples are increasingly looking to participate in planning and development activities, while at the same time
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seeking to protect the integrity and maintenance of their culture and traditions. One of the most important responsibilities of the NLC is to consult with traditional landowners and other Aboriginal people with an interest in land that is the subject of a land use proposal. Under the Land Rights Act, landowners must give informed consent before any action is taken to affect their lands and seas. Achieving informed consent also ensures affected Aboriginal communities and groups have the chance to express their views. AWA: In your opinion, what are the key elements of a healthy and prosperous community and how does the Council support this? Scrymgour: A community works best when groups of local people take action together, based on their ideas of what is important and their knowledge of what decisions and actions will create broad and lasting community benefit. A community-led approach to building healthy and prosperous places amplifies the voices of diverse community leaders, families and residents and builds upon existing community values, assets and capacity. Toward this, NLC delivers its Community Planning and Development (CP&D) Program. It is a relatively new program, it has been operating for around three years. It aims to support Aboriginal landowners use their income from land use agreements to drive their own development and secure long lasting benefits from the use of their land, seas and waters. The CP&D Program is based on good governance and local Aboriginal decision-making at every step of the way.
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Caption
A COMMUNITY WORKS BEST WHEN GROUPS OF LOCAL PEOPLE TAKE ACTION TOGETHER... MARION SCRYMGOUR
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WAT E R
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SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY
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Marion Scrymgour
Kenbi elder John Moreen welcomes Tim Burrburr of Bulgul Rangers to Larrakeyah country. (Photo: Dave Hancock)
Aboriginal groups decide if they want to work through the CP&D Program and how much of their income will be used for community projects. CP&D is so far working with eight groups across the NLC region. Together they have invested over $6.5 million toward projects for lasting community benefit. Nearly 30 development projects are at different stages of progress. There is strong focus by groups on culture, youth and community infrastructure. The types of projects include: culture camps to support intergenerational knowledge transfer of lore and culture, youth diversion programs, training and employment opportunities, law and justice and upgrades to community buildings, schools and signage. The CP&D Program is an exemplar of communities working together for the betterment of their future generations, through supported governance and decision making processes. It highlights the benefits of Aboriginal groups having the authority to lead their planning and development based on their local needs, issues and values. It sends a good message to governments that Aboriginal-led planning and development provides lasting community benefits.
have a proportionally larger Aboriginal population than other states and territories, at around 30% of the population. When we talk about Indigenous rights, it can include a broader view than non-Indigenous people might think of when they think about ‘rights’. For Aboriginal people rights encompass access to and use of land and water but also takes in, for example, the responsibility to conduct ceremonies, to care for country and to ensure the continuing capacity to fulfil these responsibilities. Australia-wide, institutionalised inequity is as embedded in water distribution as it is in many other sectors. Where rights to land have been granted, this often has not translated into rights to water. Many river and groundwater systems are now over-allocated and Aboriginal interests have simply been left out. We are fortunate in the Northern Territory not to have the disastrous situation seen in the Murray Darling Basin but that is more due to our remoteness and small population than good planning. Even here, there are over-allocated systems. Our First Nations people have also largely been excluded across the country from decisions about water use and water management.
AWA: Could you comment on the current state of Indigenous land and water rights in the Northern Territory? Scrymgour: We are in a unique position in the Northern Territory because we are the only jurisdiction to come under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, which provides more secure tenure and stronger rights than Native Title. More than half of the land mass of the Northern Territory is owned by Aboriginal people under the Land Rights Act. We also
AWA: In terms of Indigenous land and water rights policy, what would you like to see change in Australia? How do you think these changes should be managed? Scrymgour: The NT Government is currently introducing a change that is an important step forward for the recognition of Aboriginal water rights. There is a Bill before the NT Parliament that will establish Strategic Aboriginal Water Reserves under the legislation. The reserves set aside an allocation of water for the purpose of Aboriginal economic development.
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Marion Scrymgour
TOO OFTEN REFORMS ... HAVE BEEN INTRODUCED AND THEN THROWN OUT BY THE NEXT GOVERNMENT. MARION SCRYMGOUR
Northern Land Council CEO Marion Scrymgour being interviewed by journalists. (Photo: Dave Hancock)
This is something that traditional owners and land councils have been campaigning for a long time and it will go some way to addressing an historic inequality. I believe it is an Australian first and I’m sure it is a policy that Indigenous people in other jurisdictions would like to see adopted. Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory see land and water as one entity. For Aboriginal people in the NLC’s area, the separation of the two is incongruous. But we know activities on land impact water systems and vice versa. I would like to see a more holistic, strategic approach by government that better reflects this view, for example by integrating land and water planning. The expertise of Aboriginal people – and what that could contribute to land and water management – should be given much more recognition. In the NT, where culture has been less disrupted by removal policies than in other jurisdictions, traditional owners have effectively managed their country for tens of thousands of years and continue to do so today. They have an understanding of the environment and detailed knowledge of their country that has been built up over generations, through daily observation. This knowledge should be integrated with western science to improve data, inform decision-making and result in better outcomes. Water planning should be based on rigorous science, including traditional science. Aboriginal positions should be reserved on relevant boards, committees and other such bodies overseeing land and water
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planning, policy and management. This would serve a dual purpose, ensuring a voice for Aboriginal interests while also allowing the body to benefit from Aboriginal understanding of country and traditional knowledge. The most recent water plans being developed in the NT include recommendations to establish Aboriginal reference groups, which is a positive step. Traditional owners and Indigenous ranger groups should be supported in the important role of caring for their country, including through secure, ongoing funding. They can be engaged alongside scientists in river assessment, monitoring and management. There are individual examples of this happening, but it needs a policy shift to become standard. In water planning in the NT and elsewhere, allocations for environmental flows are assumed to incorporate cultural flows. Although there is a degree of overlap between the two, it is important to acknowledge that they are not the same. It is important for Aboriginal people that water planning recognises and protects the distinct and diverse cultural values and usage of an area, including traditional values and sacred sites but also daily living on country. Too often reforms, such as those I’ve mentioned, have been introduced and then thrown out by the next government. I would like to see our politicians putting aside their party politics and agreeing to do what is needed to both recognise the rights, interests and responsibilities of Australia’s first peoples and give our land and waters the protections they need.
www.awa.asn.au
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04635 Utility and Current Magazine Ad FIN.indd 1 AWA13_20-25_Q&A_Scrygmour_V4.indd 25
19/09/2018 4:01 PM 2/10/19 4:59 pm
Mentoring
FOR ME, IT’S HELPED A LOT TO GET MY FOOT IN THE DOOR, TO MAKE THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS AND FIND OUT WHERE I REALLY WANTED TO TAKE MY CAREER PATH. SHARNA TRUE
Mentor
Mentee
LUC
SHARNA
Hazer Group
Emerge Associates
Age:
Age:
42
33
Time in industry:
Time in industry:
20 years
3 years
Kox
True
Industry experience gap
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www.awa.asn.au
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17 years
2/10/19 4:59 pm
LUC & SHARNA CURRENT SPOKE WITH AN AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION MENTOR PROGRAM PAIRING FROM PERTH ABOUT VARIED CAREER PATHS, NEW PERSPECTIVES AND THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING AN OPEN MIND. As told to Martin Kovacs
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entors and mentees can take time to click at first, however, working together to create open and reciprocal channels of communication can ultimately result in a fulfilling experience for both. Luc and Sharna met three years ago at an AWA speed-mentoring and networking event, and while the introduction was brief, the two have since worked together to build a productive relationship that has stood the test of time, and which sees them still remain in regular contact.
Mentor LUC KOX, COMMERCIAL MANAGER, HAZER GROUP I’m originally from Holland, and started my career as a process engineer in the wastewater industry. Even before I lived in Australia, I was already quite a fan of the AWA – I was already attending and speaking at events, especially those hosted by the local branch here in Perth, to present my former company’s technologies to the Australian market. I wanted to give something back to the industry. I’m passionate about networking and I’ve always benefited from mentoring, so I joined the AWA to be part of creating good events for members. But mentoring also appealed to me as a way to give back to the industry. I met Sharna at an AWA mentoring event around three years ago. It was almost like a mentoring
speed-dating set-up, where everyone had to write up a little profile, and then based on those profiles the AWA team made some potential matches, and those mentoring couples were to then meet in person, and to have a chat to see if they clicked personally. Initially I wasn’t sure if it was going to last, as it was very hard for Sharna and myself to meet up in person, and it wasn’t flowing quite so well. I wasn’t sure if the mentoring relationship was actually going to survive. I was also mentoring another person, and I thought that relationship would make it through. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. That was a great experience for me, and also a learning curve. Networking is definitely a topic that has come up with Sharna a few times. I love networking, and Sharna doesn’t – so, that’s a work in progress. We have also spoken about changes in your career, and if you decide to jump, making sure it is the right jump, and that you don’t just jump for the sake of it. I think that for both of us it’s now way easier to speak freely, and we’re both way more comfortable obviously after three years than we were when we first met. I’d like to think that Sharna is also now more comfortable to raise something without me prompting her, and without me asking any questions. It’s always best if the mentee takes the initiative. However, especially as you get to know each other, the mentee might not be fully comfortable in reaching out and sharing their worries or what’s on their mind. In those early days, they might need a bit more encouragement, and a bit more of a gentle approach – in particular, asking the right
www.awa.asn.au
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Mentoring
NETWORKING IS DEFINITELY A TOPIC THAT HAS COME UP WITH SHARNA A FEW TIMES. I LOVE NETWORKING, AND SHARNA DOESN’T – SO, THAT’S A WORK IN PROGRESS. LUC KOX
questions, mentoring is all about asking questions. I think most of us will say they’ve benefited from mentoring, or by reflecting in some way with others in the industry, and I think we all owe it to the younger people in the industry to provide them with that type of development as well. A lot of focus is placed on technical skills, but our soft skills, our communication and leadership skills, are not always sufficiently addressed before we enter the workforce and start our careers. Mentoring Sharna has been really enjoyable and very fulfilling, especially after thinking it wasn’t going to work, and then both of us making it work in the end.
Mentee SHARNA TRUE, GRADUATE ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT – CONTAMINATED LAND & ACID SULFATE SOILS, EMERGE ASSOCIATES I started my career in the environmental sector a little bit later. I actually have a corporate finance background, and I went back to study at 27, with my interest being in the area of water and hydrology, and I’ve been in the environmental sector for about three years now. I graduated last year, and I’ve been working and studying full-time at the same time. I signed up for the AWA mentoring program because I didn’t know anyone in the industry, or have
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any of those sort of connections, and I obviously want to take my career further and get involved in some professional organisations. Personally, it’s great to get out of my comfort zone. I don’t have a lot of confidence when it comes to shmoozing, getting out, going to events and meeting industry people – so, the speed-mentoring event appealed to me. I thought it would be a quick few minutes to get to know someone, and then you move along. Being paired up with a mentor allows for a one-on-one connection, and Luc and I have got to know each other on a personal level, too. Mentoring is different from other training and events in that I can say things to him, and we can also have a laugh, and it’s not a strict environment. Initially we talked via phone, then we met up and we clicked, and over the years we have stayed in touch. Luc has given me a lot of advice and encouragement, and has helped me to navigate my career path, including from where I want to go and how I am going to get there – and he also helps me in understanding how to deal with people and situations, giving me advice in that regard as well. He’s encouraged me to put myself out there, such as with professional networking online, and he’s also encouraged me to go to more events, to meet people, to ask questions and to make those connections as well. He’s held a few events through his company and has invited me to go along, and that puts me out of my comfort zone, which is a good challenge as well. Luc has always told me to have a try, that it doesn’t matter if I don’t think that I have all the knowledge, or if I’m not going to succeed – if I don’t try, then I’ll never know. We still communicate, especially when something of interest pops up – if he sees something I like, and vice versa, then we’ll flick it on to each other. He’ll send me articles and events he thinks I might be interested in, and it goes both ways, he might also ask me for some advice about something. We do meet up for a coffee regularly as well. We both work around the city. For me it’s helped a lot to get my foot in the door, to make the right connections and find out where I really wanted to take my career path. For someone who is quite shy and reserved, mentoring has definitely encouraged me and helped a lot in terms of my confidence, to get out there, go to events and mingle with other consultants and companies. Any young professional entering into any industry should seek out a mentoring relationship. For young people being proactive and throwing themselves into things, work life is often completely different to anything they’ve experienced. It is good to have someone there to help you through. It makes it less scary and it really helps. From my experience, the people who want to mentor are more than happy to help. Just go for it. To get involved in the Australian Water Association’s mentoring program, contact your local branch.
www.awa.asn.au
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2/10/19 4:59 pm
Civil emergency response
Putting people first
You can’t plan for the unexpected but, when disaster strikes, having well-established contacts; the ability to mobilise necessary personnel, tools and materials; extensive in-house experience; and a dedicated team provides the best chance of achieving positive outcomes.
www.interflow.com.au mail@interflow.com.au www.interflow.com.au mail@interflow.com.au
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As Australasia’s leader in pipeline renewal, Interflow is your first contractor to restore the life of water networks that keep communities flowing in the toughest situations.
Locations throughout Australia & New Zealand Locations throughout Australia & New Zealand
2/10/19 4:59 pm
2019 Australian Water Awards sponsor
2016 2019 AUSTRALIAN WATER AWARDS SPONSOR
L-R: Chrstina Tonkin, Aravind Surapaneni, Sarah Carroll, Antony Old, Stephen Westgate, Matthew Robertson, Florence Choo, Sarah Watkins and Francois Gouws
he Australian Water Association water awards not only recognise the achievements of individuals and organisations, they aim to inspire the Australian water sector to drive positive change and help create a sustainable water future. And the champions of the 2019 Australian Water Awards shore up phenomenal examples of how far Australia’s water professionals, students and organisations will go to drive equality, sustainability and innovation for local and global communities. Here, Current asks the 2019 Australian Water Award winners to reflect on what has motivated them in their work and how community has played a role in their extraordinary success.
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www.awa.asn.au
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2016 2/10/19 5:01 pm
2016
WAT E R P R O F E S S I O N A L O F T H E Y E A R
Darryl Day ICE WaRM
ICE WaRM was set up 15 years ago by the Australian government as a portal to take Australia’s water expertise to the world. A lot of our work is about capacity development around water for a range of different countries. We’re particularly focused in South Asia, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. When I accepted the Australian Water Professional of the Year award, I made the point that, as professionals in the water space, our key role is advocacy for progression of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I am very grateful to have a platform to promote the importance of the SDGs. Water professionals are crucial to delivering the SDGs as water is so interconnected with all of the goals. I feel very fortunate that my current role offers me the opportunity to give back to the sector by way of leading conversations around sustainability. I contribute professionally, but also by encouraging others to be involved in the global challenge. Communities are key to our work and our successes as water professionals; communities create political support and focus our political leaders. Without the passion from within communities, the political leadership is not going to pan out. It has to come from the bottom up. Through my experience, I’ve seen significant value in the research that underpins good practice to inform policy. Our challenge in Australia is a lack of leadership in promoting the new research we need in order to address the problems of the next 10 years, and beyond. If we think forward to 2030, we are still unsure of the challenges we are going to face. But we can certainly develop scenarios around the issues of climate change. We must focus on preparing ourselves as a sector. Currently, Australia is under investing, and we lack substantial
coordination of our research capabilities. We once had five Cooperative Research Centres involved in water. We had centres of excellence in recycling, desalination and groundwater. It was through those organisations that we developed the science to be able to address the issues we were faced with, including the Millennium Drought, increasing urbanisation, new contaminants and various diseases, the impact of which we didn’t understand before our concerted research efforts. As a national sector, it’s up to water professionals to do what we can to drive change in leadership to ensure the foundation of our practice is built on good research. Without this we will struggle to meet the needs of communities in future.
I FEEL VERY FORTUNATE THAT MY CURRENT ROLE OFFERS ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE BACK TO THE SECTOR BY WAY OF LEADING CONVERSATIONS AROUND SUSTAINABILITY. DARRYL DAY, ICE WaRM
www.awa.asn.au
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2016
Y OU NG WAT E R P R O F E S S I O N A L O F T H E Y E A R
Matthew Robertson TASWATER
YOUNG WATER PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR SPONSOR
I am where I am today because of the opportunity given to me by TasWater, in particular Lance Stapleton. Back in 2012, he was part of the team that awarded me a scholarship with Southern Water at the time, which got my foot into the door. When I finished university, Lance, along with TasWater, offered me my first job in the water sector. I believe my success in the water industry boils down to this and the ongoing opportunity and support given to me by TasWater and my colleagues. I love the water sector because it services such a wide range of applications. On one side of it, you are looking at public health, community wellbeing and aesthetics. On the other side, you’re looking at environmental impact and sustainability. Every day is
different. We’re never doing the same thing and there’s always new challenges. My work continuously tests me, it’s always exciting to find a problem and come to some form of resolution. No two days are ever the same. From a community point of view, the success I’ve had at TasWater has really been about the opportunities I was given. The business gave me the chance to be innovative, learn, go to conferences and meet people in the industry. And winning the Young Water Professional of the Year award has opened up more opportunities for me as well; I’ve been able to represent Tasmania on a national scale, I’ve been invited to participate in the 2020 YWP Conference Planning Committee and the Ozwater’20 Planning Committee.
R E S E A R C H I N NOVAT I O N AWA R D DRIVING CHANGE FROM CONSERVATISM TO PRAGMATISM – BETTER USE OF BIOSOLIDS AND RECYCLED WATER BY USING RESEARCH TO CHALLENGE GUIDELINES
South East Water ARAVIND SURAPANENI I come from a background of inter-generational farmers. I completed my studies in India and did my PhD in New Zealand. After that I worked as a soil chemist near Shepparton in Victoria. I realised there were a lot of gaps. I was drawn to the water industry in Australia because of how many issues there are still to be solved. Agriculture and soil scientists aren’t always involved in decision making. But a lot of the by-products from the water industry are very applicable in farming. The water industry is not just about building dams and providing people with water, it is also about agriculture and farming. In Australia, we can use
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biosolids in farming to grow crops or feed for livestock. I’ve been involved in community throughout the entire project, whether it is service providers, universities, organisations or students. It’s been a fantastic team effort so the award recognises all of us. But there is also the community of customers who are the people using the biosolids for agriculture. Everything is driven by the community in terms of end use. We know the problems, farmers are struggling with climate change and resources, in terms of spending money on fertilisers. Our aim is to help alleviate the problem.
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2/10/19 5:02 pm
2016
P R O G R A M I N NOVAT I O N AWA R D ENHANCING OUR DANDENONG CREEK
Melbourne Water SARAH WATKINS There has been a great shift towards collaborative consultation and engagement, especially where the environment and communities are impacted, and our program has really benefitted from this movement. Upgrading the Ringwood South Branch sewer was the conventional, expensive option to addressing a non-compliant sewer, which was spilling into a creek. We had a lot of information about Dandenong Creek; its values, health and the sewer spills, and took the time to learn what was affecting the health of the waterway most. This, as well as a genuine partnership with the Environment Protection Authority, set us up to challenge the status quo and test new approaches to achieve improvements. Dandenong Creek is our third most visited waterway in the Melbourne region and is
highly valued by the community. This was really important in the design of the project – we set out to improve the waterway for the community, especially around its potential amenity values. By working together to create a shared vision and a suite of works for the area, we have been able to learn exactly what they value, build trusted relationships and build the community’s understanding of what we, as an organisation, focus on to deliver waterway health – a shared understanding and commitment has proven to be a powerful way forward for the program. The exposure the project has gained really allows us to demonstrate what’s possible to other water authorities and utilities across Australia in tackling these types of challenges with community, and in creating solutions together.
2019 PROGRAM INNOVATION AWARD SPONSOR
I N F R A S T R UC T U R E P R OJ E C T I N NOVAT I O N AWA R D GROUNDWATER REPLENISHMENT SCHEME
Water Corporation SARAH CARROLL I’ve always had an interest in sustainability and wanting to be a part of something that made a difference for people. Working on the Advanced Water Recycling Plant, I have played a role in providing a sustainable water source for the people of Perth, which I think is really exciting. Water Corporation considered the support of the community to be crucial when delivering the Advanced Water Recycling Plant. Talking to and engaging with the community to understand any concerns and to also explain how the process worked, was really important. That is why this project was so special, as we had to show how the technology and our processes and systems could produce water to a safe standard, and
bring the community along with us. We also could not have succeeded without the support of our regulators, they held the Water Corporation to account to ensure that the process was safe and also supported us during the trial. The win at the Australian Water Awards was recognition of how far this project has gone and of how many people have been involved – this award was an endorsement of a great team effort. Water Corporation has an amazing group of hard-working professionals that put many years of effort into not only delivering the project, but also ensuring its ongoing success. We are excited to be able to share our knowledge and experience so that future replenishment schemes can be developed.
2019 INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT INNOVATION AWARD SPONSOR
www.awa.asn.au
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2016
WAT E R I N D U S T R Y S A F E T Y E X C E L L E NC E AWA R D POTABLE ROBOTIC TANK CLEANING PROGRAM
Watertight Robotics ANTONY OLD
WATER INDUSTRY SAFETY EXCELLENCE AWARD SPONSOR
We are in a unique position in that we were fortunate enough to win the Water Industry Safety Excellence Awards last year, and then again this year at Ozwater’19. We noticed that our company profile at Ozwater was significantly elevated from the win the year before. We had a lot of senior people from the water industry coming to see us specifically, which was fantastic. Winning the award again this year has done a lot in terms of raising awareness of our technology among utilities that previously thought our product was still at concept stage. Ours is a commercial technology that’s currently being utilised by lots of different utilities. Our technology
is really about replacing divers with a safer solution. We are very passionate about diving as safely as possible but there is always a risk when you put people underwater. We have people working for us who have suffered serious diving accidents working for other organisations, which have impacted them significantly. We have a strong community focus, we’ve provided our divers with the opportunity to upskill into robotics, and quite a few of them have taken that up. They’re still diving for us, but they’re also learning an entirely new skill and a new trade. We’re upskilling them to be able to take on future roles wherever they go.
B E S T WAT E R E - JOU R N A L PA P E R I N H O N O U R O F G U Y PA R K E R
A NEW APPROACH TO ASSESSING WATER QUALITY RISK
Stephen Westgate and Matthew Robertson TASWATER
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Stephen: I’ve been involved in the water
Matt: Steve and I submitted the
industry on and off in various different guises for most of my career. In Tasmania, I have a passion to bring the standards of water quality and safety for the community up to the similar levels of that in Europe. I saw an analysis gap here in Australia and wanted to make a difference for our communities. In terms of water quality risk, we are not perfect yet, but we’ve made huge inroads. Not just myself, but with help from our research community. Publishing the e-Journal paper and winning the award has given me a bit of internal limelight. Matt and I have been contacted by a few people around Australia about the content of the paper. It’s been fantastic.
paper because we presented on the topic at Ozwater’18. We got some encouraging feedback from our presentation, people found it very interesting and suggested we publish. But in terms of writing, it was very simple. Steve and I are more than colleagues. We’re great mates. Working alongside Steve has been a blast and its great knowing that our approach to the topic is helping other utilities.
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AWA13
Water and environmental monitoring leaps forward with the Taggle Network Thanks to the Internet of Things and connected technologies, it’s easier than ever for utilities and councils to collect important data that can help improve their operations. Imagine thousands of sensors monitoring water use, rainfall, temperature, river levels, sewer levels, water and air quality, located in the most difficult to reach environments and sending hourly data to better inform decisions and planning, all at a reasonable cost. This is not something that needs to be imagined; councils, utilities, industry and the agricultural sector are now monitoring their assets and environments with ease using such sensors. Collecting data and information across a range of applications has never been so cost effective and easy to deploy. Taggle’s Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and its range of telemetry devices provide communications for a range of sensors and devices from different providers. The Internet of Things (IoT) fits particularly well into water and environmental monitoring, as sensors need to stay in the field for extended periods of time and send small amounts of data over long distances. About 50 councils, utilities and industry customers have deployed Taggle Systems’ LPWAN and sensors to find solutions to a range of challenges. Taggle’s technical capabilities can be harnessed to provide individual solutions to particular problems
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faced by the water sector, adapting the technology to fit different sensors and collect data to provide new insights. Mackay Regional Council, Townsville City Council, Narrabri Shire Council, SA Water and Wide Bay Water are leading the way in IoT sensor technology with Taggle. By monitoring rainfall and sewer levels, Mackay has prevented sewer overflows from reaching waterways and gained a better understanding of specific problem areas in its network. Alerts provide an early warning, allowing a quick response from maintenance teams to address any problems or blockages before they become an environmental risk. Mackay was also the first council to install Taggle’s smart water meters on every residential, commercial and council building, resulting in a reduced average per capita residential consumption from about 600 litres per person per day (L/d) to about 250L/d. As a result, a new water treatment plant, which in 2010 was planned for 2020, has now been pushed back to 2032. Townsville is improving its asset management and reaping many benefits by gathering data on water pressure in the reticulation network, measuring stream levels,
receiving alerts when stormwater nets are full, monitoring pumps, recording weather and rainfall, monitoring sewer network levels, monitoring water consumption, and identifying leaks with smart water meters. All this information improves processes, efficiency and informs better decision-making. Narrabri Shire Council was experiencing 40% non-revenue water and has reduced this to less than 20% with smart water meters installed across 100% of the region. Leaks are now identified and fixed quickly, saving precious water in a drought-stricken area. SA Water is keeping odours at bay by trialling odour and gas monitoring in wastewater networks, along with weather stations to learn the effects of ventilating the network and how it may impact customers. Wide Bay Water is currently monitoring salinity levels in its sewer network near the coastline to investigate the impact of tidal inflow on the network and sewage treatment plant. IoT solutions are now at a point where large numbers of sensors can be deployed easily, even in difficult environments, at extremely reasonable costs.
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2016
A U S T R A L I A N S T O C K H O L M J U N I O R WAT E R P R I Z E DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF A FILM BASED DETECTOR SYSTEM FOR APPROPRIATE ULTRAVIOLET SOLAR DISINFECTION (SODIS) OF WATER
Macinley Butson
Congratulations to Macinley, who went on to win the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize in August in Sweden!
ILLAWARRA GRAMMAR SCHOOL
AUSTRALIAN STOCKHOLM JUNIOR WATER PRIZE SPONSOR
I’ve always been inspired to help other people less fortunate than myself. I’ve always had this passion for science and STEM more broadly, and I have applied that wherever I can. In terms of my detector system, my motivation to make a difference came in geography class. There are some astounding statistics. The one which really hit me was that one in five people in developing countries die as a result of infections from a lack of sterile water. Since then, I have fallen in love with the water sector and with its aims and work. My parents and my family have always played a big part in my success. They’ve been my number one support the whole way. Quite often people see the end
product or the device, but what they don’t see is all the support that was granted to make it happen. But you don’t get to an end point without a support network and a community backing you all the way. I’ve been very fortunate to have phenomenal teachers. They have always encouraged me to expand my learning beyond the classroom and to pursue projects I am passionate about. Winning the Australian Stockholm Junior Water Prize has been amazing. I’ve been speaking to Xylem about potentially getting the device up and running. I’m really excited and hopefully I’ll get to see my idea make a real difference.
S T U D E N T WAT E R P R I Z E REAL-TIME MONITORING OF CYANOBACTERIA: VALIDATION OF FLUOROMETERS AS A TOOL FOR OPTIMISING TREATMENT PROCESSES
Florence Choo UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES I’ve always had a passion for helping the environment. I think it comes from a trip I took to visit my grandparents in rural Asia. It was eye opening for me as a kid to see that a lot of people don’t actually have running water or a flushing toilet. I’d taken everything I had in Sydney for granted. That’s what started my water journey. Community has played a huge role in my work and my success. During my PhD candidature, I spent a lot of time at SA Water. University and water utilities offer completely different communities, but they had one theme in common, which
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is trying to help the younger generation succeed. I received a lot of support. After receiving the award, I have been approached by utilities interested in my research. Also, attending Ozwater’19 definitely offered me and my work a lot of exposure. I’ve been receiving questions about potential projects related to my research. Water utilities have been interested because my research is very applicable for their systems, it’s very practical. I really do hope my work will go onto benefit communities. There’s the opportunity for it to impact communities locally, but also globally, too.
www.awa.asn.au
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National
WATER WEEK 21-27 OCTOBER 2019
It’s Time to Change the World
Short Film Competition
for Primary & High School Students Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to change the world by helping us meet the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. We need you to learn about the Goals and think about what actions you, your family, your friends and the community can take to help meet the Goals and change the world. To help spread the word, we want you to put together a short film that focusses on 1-2 Goals and what actions we can take to help meet those Goals. Here are some actions that can help meet four of the Goals.
REC
Making sure girls get the same education as boys
Be water efficient and don’t waste water
More green spaces to play in like parks
Making sure plastic doesn’t end up in our waterways
The competition closes on Friday, 8 November 2019 Find more details and enter at www.awa.asn.au/nww19
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National Water Week
IT’S TIME TO
CHANGE
THE WORLD
EVERY THIRD WEEK OF OCTOBER, NATIONAL WATER WEEK MAKES A SPLASH ACROSS AUSTRALIA, WITH THE AIM OF INSPIRING INDIVIDUALS, COMMUNITIES AND ORGANISATIONS TO WORK TOGETHER TO BUILD AWARENESS AROUND THE VALUE OF WATER.
#NationalWaterWeek A s all water professionals know, access to clean water is crucial to every aspect of our lives, and we must strive to protect our water environments and resources, and use water wisely. The theme for this year’s National Water Week – ‘It’s time to
change the world’ – has been set with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in mind. Current asked some of the Australian Water Association’s principal members to share how they are working towards changing the world through water.
www.awa.asn.au/nationalwaterweek
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AECOM
Michael Andrew, Head of Water Practice, South Australia and Victoria
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he world is changing … and so are expectations regarding the water industry. Safe, efficient, continuous service provision will always be core to our industry, whether we are designers, constructors or on the frontline of operations. However, we understand it is our responsibility to continually improve in order to meet our customers’ growing expectations and our clients’ ambitions in regard to: value-for-money; developing and embedding digital engineering solutions; enabling smart, timely decision-making; implementing emerging technologies; and creating value where opportunities have been overlooked in the past.
The circular economy is our focus now. AECOM has been developing innovative solutions as the lead designer on projects that maximise the value of the water-cycle — such as the Disco Road Source Separated Organics Facility in Toronto, Canada, and the advanced recycled water treatment plant in Victoria, which treats sewage effluent to a very high standard, which is then supplied to an industrial user instead of potable water. As an industry, we need to work together to meet the community’s expectations around climate change and sustainability, including the reduction of asset footprints and construction activities, the creation of alternative energy, the minimisation of waste, or delivering other environmental benefits. AECOM will continue to bring our problem-solving ability to the water industry to improve safety, deliver whole-oflife efficiencies and designs that promote reliability, preserve asset values and provide exceptional customer service.
SMEC
Bob Tilbury, Market Director – Water & Dams, Environment & Waste
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Wentworth to Broken Hill pipeline project.
MEC has been at the leading edge of water infrastructure for 70 years, with origins in the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme, one of the world’s largest and most complex hydro-electric projects. Our global team of specialists deliver projects that improve water supply and sanitation and support better management of water resources and wastewater, both in Australia and in some of the world’s fastest growing economies. For example, we have been working for the past five years on the South Tarawa Sanitation Improvement Project in Kiribati, which is designed to improve public health and reduce chronic water-borne diseases and fatalities, particularly infant mortality, through better access to safe and sustainable water and sanitation services. Another example is our partnership with Queensland Urban Utilities (QUU) to provide brownfield treatment plant renewals and upgrades at QUU’s six major urban Sewage Treatment Plants. Our contributions help to ensure that more than 1.4 million people in South East Queensland have secure access to drinking water and sewerage services. We are also involved in rural water security projects such as the Wentworth to Broken Hill Pipeline and several irrigation projects in northern Australia. Beyond our project scope, our people are motivated to make a difference in the communities where we operate. One way we do this is by supporting water supply and sanitation projects particularly in developing countries via the SMEC Foundation. Last year we funded the construction of clean water supply facilities for villages in Vietnam and India. This year we have just announced funding for water infrastructure in Bangladesh and Ethiopia.
www.awa.asn.au
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George Theo visiting a Water on Tap van.
UNITYWATER
George Theo, Chief Executive Officer
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ater scarcity is a global issue and we’re no different in South-East Queensland. Locally, we’re working with our bulk water supplier and water retailer partners to plan and manage drought conditions and increase our region’s resilience for the long-term. We’re also looking at new ways of delivering a more sustainable total water cycle by expanding the use of effluent for purposes such as agriculture and irrigation, rather than simply discharging it into our waterways. We actively pursue innovative solutions to improve the way we operate. This includes everything from green engineering solutions such as nutrient offsetting, renewable energies and wetland filtration to some exciting technologies that are transforming our water and sewer networks into smart, data-productive assets to improve asset performance, extend asset life and improve the customer experience.
We acknowledge and should never take for granted just how fortunate we are to live in an area with safe drinking water and sanitary sewerage services. More broadly, we’re proud to be involved in the Australian Water Association Indonesia-Australia Water Utility Improvement Program, where we’ve partnered with a water utility in Surabaya to share our knowledge and help build their technical capacity. Closer to home, we are providing technical assistance to the community on Mornington Island to ensure safe sewerage services. Additionally, we have our Water on Tap program which aims to make a positive difference to the environment by encouraging people to refill re-usable water bottles from the tap instead of buying wasteful, single-use plastic water bottles. Unitywater also has a big heart. We care for our communities and support various organisations and causes to help tackle some of the social challenges in our region such as the prevention of domestic and family violence, homelessness, kids with all abilities and the environment.
SUEZ
David Lamy, Chief Executive Officer, Water Australia and New Zealand
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y passion for changing the world through water began in 2000 when I joined SUEZ at Aguas Argentinas in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where my role was to help provide water and waste services to low socio-economic communities. Over this time, I have been committed to working with communities and cities to improve the way we use resources and face our global challenges, which is a key part of our vision at SUEZ. Each year SUEZ invests over $175 million in research and development and support over 650 dedicated researchers to drive leading-edge innovation from 17 dedicated hubs worldwide. Guided by our culture of innovation, our people are collaborating every day with our clients, partners and customers to build a sustainable, and water secure future. Our local team provides over seven million Australians with clean drinking water daily – and not only in our cities. We’ve harnessed global innovations and applied them locally with imagination and tenacity, bringing quality water to some of Australia’s most isolated communities. From delivering the nation’s first biological filtration plant in Adelaide River to the unique upgrade of the Borroloola Water Treatment Plant in the remote Northern Territory. Breakthrough technologies are essential to changing our water future.
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SUEZ is currently upgrading the Boneo Water Recycling Plant in Victoria, embedding our solutions to reduce oxygen consumption and dramatically boost biogas yields for electricity generation – one of a range of enhancements taking the facility towards carbon neutrality.
www.awa.asn.au
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National Water Week
XYLEM
Jim Athanas, Oceania Managing Director
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ater is critical to life, as without water there is no life! As a global leading water technology company, we embrace the key role we need to play in addressing the world’s water challenges. Firstly, through our industry leading solutions we provide for customers via our cutting-edge technologies and passionate teams. These solutions optimise water management with savings in water, energy and operational costs making water more affordable and accessible for communities around the world. Secondly, we are focused on building a sustainable company. Our strong financial foundation allows us to create economic and social value for our stakeholders, customers and communities. We proudly promote diversity, inclusion and environmentally friendly practices and the need to operate with safety and integrity always front of mind. Finally, we are empowering communities to be more resilient via our Xylem Watermark program and the volunteering spirit of Xylem’s 17,000+ global team. We do this through providing clean drinking water systems for needy communities around the globe, supporting disaster relief projects with resources and expertise, and delivering education to young people to increase awareness of global water challenges.
VINIDEX
Mark Nykiel, Chief Executive Officer
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he world is rapidly changing and water scarcity is a local and global issue. At Vinidex we want to help provide access to clean water and manage water flows in the most efficient way. An industry leader in water supply systems, Vinidex provides innovative solutions for water pipelines for key infrastructure
across Australia including: water, wastewater, building, agriculture, mining and industrial projects. As an early pioneer of plastic piping in Australia, we are passionate about building an innovative and sustainable future for water and energy. Vinidex works with industry and government to create water pipeline systems for remote and isolated rural areas, townships and our large cities to manage available water more efficiently. We are a trusted Australian manufacturer with almost 60 years of expertise in the water industry. Our expertise in manufacturing PVC, PE and PP pipe systems is complemented by a large range of specialist products sourced worldwide. As part of the Aliaxis group, a global leader in advanced plastic piping systems, Vinidex can leverage the best specialised solutions to meet the needs of the local Australian market. Plastic pipes and fittings are a smart engineered material of choice in many essential services. Plastic pipe systems provide safe, clean drinking water to Australian communities and proven, reliable drainage solutions, providing health and environmental benefits. They are engineered for a long service life and are sustainable as they have low embodied energy and can be recycled. Leveraging the qualities of plastic pipes will provide opportunities for sustainable water infrastructure essential to the development of our communities.
www.awa.asn.au
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How to maximise the lifecycle cost of your pump While there are inevitable costs that are hard to control such as environmental, disposal and installation costs, end users can realise long-term savings with reduced maintenance, energy costs and downtime.
When procuring a pump, upfront cost is often a major consideration in the decision-making process. However, according to a report from the Victorian Government, the initial cost accounts for less than 10% of the lifecycle cost, with energy and maintenance making up the bulk of these costs at between 50% and 95%. Therefore, it is important to consider the long-term costs when selecting a pump to get the most cost-effective solution. Here, we look at the factors that can influence the lifecycle cost of your pump.
SELECTING A PUMP: QUALITY OVER COST One important choice when selecting a pump that will influence its lifecycle costs is the quality of the equipment. A high-quality, reliable, well-built pump will likely have a lower lifecycle cost than a cheaper, lightweight pump. Going for a cheaper option may result in a lesser-quality product, especially if the materials selected are not suitable for the application. If this is the case, lifecycle costs can quickly increase as there is a higher chance of premature failure or unexpected servicing and replacement costs. A high-quality product will also have gone through rigorous testing to ensure it will run reliably and will be defect-free at the time of purchase. Another area where quality can be realised is through the level of customer service you receive from the manufacturer. A manufacturer with top quality service will be able to provide prompt technical support to help troubleshoot any problems. This means minimal downtime is experienced and the pump will be
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back to operating efficiently as soon as possible. Companies with quality customer service will also be able to provide an expert opinion when you are selecting a pump, to ensure it is the best fit for your application so you can realise long-term cost savings.
GETTING THE RIGHT SIZE PUMP Selecting a correctly sized pump is imperative to reduce lifecycle costs. While it might be tempting to get a smaller pump to reduce costs or a larger pump to account for possible higher pumping requirements, these will ultimately result in higher costs in the long term. An undersized pump will result in reduced water efficiency, while an oversized pump will have a higher installation cost, as well as higher energy usage and wear rate, so more frequent maintenance will be required. Therefore, selecting a pump that is correctly sized to meet your exact needs will ensure the best energy efficiency and least energy wastage, and will provide optimal lifespan and reliability.
MAXIMISING ENERGY EFFICIENCY For applications such as irrigation, where variable speed and flow rates may be needed, investing in a pump with a variable frequency drive (VFD) will help reduce lifecycle costs. VFDs can be programmed to run the pumps at a certain speed and flow rate for different connected zones, so that it is always running to its best efficiency point (BEP).
While a VFD will increase the initial cost of the pump, if the pump is not running to its BEP, it will experience increased wear and require more frequent maintenance and parts replacement, and have high energy consumption.
QUALITY AND RELIABILITY AT THE HEART OF FRANKLIN ELECTRIC Malcolm Eyre, Managing Director at Franklin Electric, said the company understands its customers’ need for products that are durable and long lasting to ensure optimal lifecycle costs. “Nothing less than having the highest quality products and service are acceptable for our customers, because anything else is too costly,” Eyre said. “That is why we are committed to the manufacture of high-quality, reliable products in our facilities in the US, Germany and Italy. With solid engineering, our products are designed to stand the test of time. “We also have a rigorous testing program. In our laboratories, we test the products for performance and endurance before they leave the manufacturing facility.” Franklin Electric also places a high value on customer service and is committed to finding customers the best solution for their application, and providing prompt customer support to troubleshoot any problems. “We value our customers and will go out of our way to make sure their pumps remain running at their best, so the greatest value for lifecycle costs can be realised.”
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Reliable irrigation solutions
Franklin Electric has over 50 years of experience providing industry-leading technical service to the irrigation industry, providing support and advice to keep you pumping in even the most rural areas.
Leading the industry in service standards
www.franklin-electric.com.au
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Water Literacy
WATER LITERACY WATER SCARCITY, INCREASING DROUGHTS AND CHANGING RAINFALL PATTERNS ASSOCIATED WITH CLIMATE CHANGE POSE A MAJOR CHALLENGE FOR AUSTRALIAN WATER UTILITIES. BUT MEDIATING GENUINE CHANGE REQUIRES ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY. HOW CAN UTILITIES AND THE WATER SECTOR FOSTER SUPPORT FOR CHANGE IN THE COMMUNITIES THEY SERVE? By Josh Hoey
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ONLY 13% OF HOUSEHOLDS SURVEYED THOUGHT THEY USED MORE WATER THAN AVERAGE, WHICH IS SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER THAN THE REALITY, WHERE AROUND 40% ARE USING MORE WATER THAN AVERAGE. K AREN WILLIS, WATER CORPORATION
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ape Town’s water crisis in South Africa. Flint, Michigan. Australia’s own Millennium Drought. They all show how fragile our water supply is increasingly becoming, and just how important innovation and infrastructure development are to ensure water security. “Water crises in major international cities have served as a reminder to Australians of the very real risk and impact of severe water shortages and why we must be smart about how we supply and use this precious resource,” Seqwater Corporate and Community Relations Manager Sophie Walker said. Broadly speaking, there is a difference between urban and regional understandings of water scarcity. While regional populations are often all too familiar with droughts, a survey by Sydney Water earlier this year found that most residents were unaware they were currently in a drought. To meet shortage challenges, the water sector needs the support necessary to change water supply, management and patterns of use to ensure long-term water supply. Many options are available – water restrictions, desalination plants, potable reuse, aquifer recharge, advanced leak detection, smart metering – and all will likely play a role. The biggest challenge is keeping a diverse public accustomed to cheap, plentiful water, onside. Walker and other experts agree that while many Australians may appreciate that our continent is water scarce, few understand the urban water cycle, what makes water safe to drink, or how water comes from various sources. The problem isn’t the evidence. “At this point, the merits of potable reuse have been proven extensively from a technical and financial perspective,” said GHD Water Treatment and Desalination Service Line Leader Arturo Burbano. The biggest challenge to water security is often public opinion. “Most of our public systems are built very
much around opinion rather than judgement; opinion polls and surveys that ask people what they think when they haven’t been thinking,” said Iain Walker, Executive Director of New Democracy Foundation, a privately funded research foundation aimed at building trust in public institutions and driving innovation in Australia’s democratic system. “Everyone has different views on many aspects of the water system, but struggle to point to a primary source when they’re asked to back up their views.”
PUBLIC OPINION
Walker said water literacy is vital to ensure the public supports major changes. “Water literacy is critical to the community being able to participate in water saving initiatives during times of drought and also to establish trust in drinking water from climate-resilient sources such as desalination and purified recycled water,” he said. “When you add population growth and a changing climate, the importance of water literacy becomes paramount.” Getting it wrong can set back development and innovation for years. Toowoomba in the mid 2000s is a cautionary tale. Despite initial government support, a potable reuse plan ultimately failed, hindered by a number of factors including limited community consultation and education. Getting it right can open up new sustainable sources of water supply. Water Corporation’s aquifer recharge program in Perth is often touted as a success. After a lengthy trial period and community education program, aquifer recharge with recycled wastewater now supplies a growing share of the city’s water needs and continues to enjoy strong public support. What can utilities and local governments learn from these experiences to nsure water literacy in their communities and drive effective change?
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RECHARGED: GOING UNDERGROUND While potable water reuse may be a sensitive topic in many parts of Australia, one water utility has managed to successfully launch a potable reuse project that supplies water to one of Australia’s capital cities: Perth. Water Corporation’s groundwater recharge project sees wastewater treated to drinking water standards and then stored in underground aquifers that naturally purify the water further. The project supplies 2% of the 312 billion litres of water Perth and surrounding agricultural areas need each year. So how did the utility successfully execute a potable reuse project? Water Corporation Customer and Community General Manager Karen Willis said an 18-month research program that included 45 focus groups, 7000 online survey responses and 14,500 visits to an online portal were essential. “We were heartened to find our own understanding was relatively consistent with the findings of the research,” she said. “This included the increased use of recycled water, sustainable water practices and reducing our water use, in the face of declining rainfall due to climate change.” During the three-year groundwater replenishment trial, education and engagement with the local community was essential. Water Corporation built a custom Visitor Centre at the site that saw over 11,000 community members visit. “Surveys taken of people who visited the plant indicated support of over 90% once they had a thorough understanding of the processes involved in groundwater replenishment,” Willis said. “Water Corporation was conscious of not forcing the idea on the community, and the three-year trial gave the opportunity to see how it could work in reality.” The model is based on experience from Orange County in California, where a similar scheme to supply 50% of local drinking water also included a successful community engagement program. Water Corporation worked with the Departments of Health and Environmental Regulation to develop a Memorandum of Understanding for the trial that established guidelines for drinking recycled water specific to the project. “Having the scrutiny of our regulators while ensuring any results from drinking water monitoring remained open and transparent were also keys to gaining people’s trust in the process,” Willis said.
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Water Literacy
UTILITIES TURNED EDUCATORS
The 2015 National Survey of Australians’ Water Literacy and Water-related Attitudes, conducted by the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Water Sensitive Cities, showed that while Australian’s largely understand where their water comes from and the importance of conservation, there were sobering gaps in water literacy. Only 41% of those surveyed understood that water is a finite resource, and over 50% said they’d received no information or education on water in the last six months. While utilities are responsible for managing water and wastewater, there’s a clear benefit in fostering water literacy in the communities they serve. Water Corporation found there was a mismatch between perception and reality among customers when it came to water use. “Only 13% of households surveyed thought they used more water than average, which is significantly lower than the reality, where around 40% are using more water than average,” Water Corporation Customer and Community General Manager Karen Willis said. Armed with insight into customer literacy, Water Corporation built a targeted awareness campaign, including comparative water use bills, that has seen over 70% of recipients reduce their water use. Using bills in this way can be a powerful tool for driving water literacy and change. According to the CRC survey, approximately 35% of respondents said they received information from their water utility bill. “We put in easily digestible, interesting information about water
with bills,and we promote campaign messages, including ways to be water efficient, on a marketing banner space on our print and e-bills and we replicate the campaign across our other channels,” said South East Water Engagement Advisor Dawn Loh. But the convenience of electronic bills and autopayment could mean finding new avenues for driving literacy. “I’ll admit, I infrequently read the information provided with my water bill,” said GHD Water Resources Principal Matt Winkelman. “I don’t have statistics for this, but my guess is people paying their water bill electronically has increased a lot over the past several years, and this could mean some do not receive information provided with their bill.” Winkelman recommends a multi-media approach, and has seen effective campaigns across platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and even community newspapers and events.
LITERACY CHANGE
While the perception that water management, supply and treatment may be too complex for the public to fully understand, Walker said utilities must trust the public if they ever hope to instigate change. “People are capable of becoming reasonably informed on a topic, and that’s really our aspiration. We think that’s potentially a huge benefit for the water industry,” he said. “The hardest part is that you as an expert, you as a subject matter industry expert who’s dedicated their career to this, you are absolutely handing your baby over.” Burbano points to the experience of San Diego, where an attempt to start potable reuse ultimately failed because
the utility didn’t trust their customers to understand the issue. “It stalled potable reuse initiatives for 10-15 years,” he said. A couple of decades later, and after a significant campaign to educate utilities, schools and the general public, San Diego has now embraced potable reuse. “It becomes clear that the solution to ease political tensions about PR must start with a solid education campaign,” Burbano said. New Democracy has had similar experiences, where education and information have driven difficult decisions that many would think impossible. The Foundation recently ran a project for Yarra Valley Water around pricing, bringing together a random selection of customers over many months, and provided them with primary sources on water supply and budgeting, and asked them to make recommendations on pricing. “Yarra Valley Water offered progressively increasing rebates to customers when services were out. What was interesting is that when those customers went through it and saw the balance of price and service, they actually didn’t want those types of rebates offered, which was quite counterintuitive. They started to learn that operating a network is quite difficult,” he said. While the utility ultimately decided to keep the rebates, it gathered strong evidence that the public can appreciate the complexity of the water system and make decisions that benefit all. Loh suggests finding common ground and tailoring messaging to customer priorities. “A secure water supply now and in the future is very important to customers and community.
WE HAVE TO SHARE THE PROBLEMS THAT EXIST. I OFTEN FEEL FOR GOVERNMENT AGENCIES THAT HAVE TO COME OUT AND SAY ‘HERE’S THE SOLUTION’, BECAUSE IT’S REALLY EASY TO THROW ROCKS. IAIN WALKER, THE NEW DEMOCRACY
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Water Literacy
AT THIS POINT, THE MERITS OF POTABLE REUSE HAVE BEEN PROVEN EXTENSIVELY FROM A TECHNICAL AND FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE. ARTURO BURBANO, GHD
Dialogue and engagement could start from there when we talk about recycled water for potable use,” she said. For Walker, the key to effective engagement and driving major changes to water supply and management is being open about the process, something he says is not a strong point in the public sector, including water. “It’s a difficult decision for agencies to take. But when they do have the confidence to open up all the information – not just the good news and hide the bad news – to a group of people, they are the projects that work and generate great results,” he said. Openness and transparency were also key to the success of Water Corporation’s aquifer recharge project, according to Willis, where a public information centre showed how the project would work. Water utilities and local governments around Australia regularly undertake surveys, hold community forums, and track response to marketing and education campaigns in an effort to not only gauge water literacy but also
support changes to water supply and management. Measuring a problem is half the solution, but Walker said it’s time to move beyond focus groups and marketing research, and start trusting customers to generate questions and solutions. “We have to share the problems that exist. I often feel for government agencies that have to come out and say ‘here’s the solution’, because it’s really easy to throw rocks. Our system means you only hear from people who don’t like something,” he said. Instead of approaching customers with an agenda or particular project, Walker advises asking open questions on the big problems, and then providing customers with primary sources. “You’ve got to give people incentives to read. We all pay tax – but have we all read the Henry Tax Review? “That’s a choice that is known in academia as rational ignorance. In our projects we run small samples of people – 30, 40, 50 – give them
FORUMS FOR COMMUNITY LEARNING Engaging with the community and getting their input on water policy and management is vital for driving literacy and innovation. Sydney Water’s Customer Council provides such a forum for input into policy, planning and service decision-making processes. “The Council helps foster trust with our customers and provides opportunities for Council members to raise matters on behalf of representative groups,” a Sydney Water spokesperson said. Sydney Water’s Act requires the utility to establish a Customer Council, which has historically included members of environmental advocacy groups, businesses, developers, local government and minority ethnic groups. The Council meets quarterly and is chaired by the utility’s managing director or a general manager. While the council isn’t a decision-making body, it provides an advisory function and helps shape Sydney Water’s strategic decisions. “For example, some members are actively involved in our regulatory submissions cycle,” the spokesperson said. The utility also conducted a large-scale customer engagement project last year with groups of customers as well as smaller, more focussed sessions with small business owners, economically disadvantaged customers and non-English speakers to help inform and shape Sydney Water’s 2018-20 regulatory submissions. The project also functioned as a proof of concept for an ongoing customer engagement program designed to enable direct feedback from customers as part of business planning. “We are also recognised as a leader in involving the community in local area decisions regarding projects or developments such as the Vaucluse and Diamond Bay remediation project and the upgrade work at Woolloomooloo to separate [the] combined wastewater and stormwater system into separate collection systems,” the spokesperson said.
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MY GUESS IS PEOPLE PAYING THEIR WATER BILL ELECTRONICALLY HAS INCREASED A LOT OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, AND THIS COULD MEAN SOME DO NOT RECEIVE INFORMATION PROVIDED WITH THEIR BILL. MATT WINKELMAN, GHD
primary sources, and have the chief executive or the chair of a water utility give them answers. That radically changes incentives to read,” he said.
FROM GROUPS TO COMMUNITIES
Seeing 30 customers move from having opinions on the water sector to having informed positions backed up by data is great, but to scale up literacy Walker said water service providers need to turn to the media: not for direct education or promoting a campaign, but to introduce the process of community engagement. “A project done really well will introduce the people involved before any decision has been reached,” he said. “It’s really simple. If I introduce a group of people to you and the problem they’re solving three or four times, you’ll tend to identify with them before they reach a decision.
“Now the same group of people: but you only see them when they reach a decision; you instinctively won’t trust them.” Slowing the process down and allowing those involved to own the decision also reaps benefits. Community engagement for Water Corporation’s aquifer recharge project lasted 18 months. “When those involved own the process, the 30 or 40 can go back and promote it in their community, on a noticeboard at school or the golf club. You can actually scale out to a couple of thousand people,” he said. Ultimately, to drive literacy and successfully implement change, utilities don’t have to run the perfect campaign. “Vast government enquiries occur today that nobody knows about,” he said. “It’s not a case of ‘well not everyone is going to trust us, so we can’t do it’. It’s good, better, best. Done well, we can have projects out there where half the population is aware.”
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Industry Safety
SAFETY NUMBERS IN
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SAFETY IN THE WATER SECTOR HAS BEEN BOLSTERED BY AN INFLUX OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES. HOWEVER, IT’S ABOUT A LOT MORE THAN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. CURRENT EXPLORES HOW COMING TOGETHER CAN MAKE FOR A SAFER WORK ENVIRONMENT. By Martin Kovacs
W
ater utilities prepared to take a proactive and collaborative approach to industry and community safety management can go a long way in bolstering a safer culture industry-wide. While technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and machine learning can support a more focused safety approach, some utilities are making waves in knowledgesharing to address safety challenges. Collaborative forums such as the Urban Water Authority (UWA) – established by South East Water in early 2018 and comprising fellow Victorian metropolitan utilities Melbourne Water, Yarra Valley Water and City West Water – can help industry collectively tackle safety issues. As noted by Kashif Azhar, South East Water Safety and Wellbeing Team Lead: “Our industry shares common risks”. “It’s beneficial to collaborate on common issues, devise agreed solutions and share best practices. A lean and standardised approach is also beneficial for our contractors, to remove confusion and complexities, while working for us.”
WORKING TOGETHER Azhar described UWA’s collaborative approach as being based around the belief that there is no intellectual property attached to safety. The forum had initially collaborated and agreed upon minimum requirements for the high-risk activity of confined space entry, benefiting the many contractors shared by the utilities. Since then, it has broadened its scope. “The agenda and attendees have evolved since the first meeting,” Azhar said.
“The forum now covers high-risk operational activities, the impact of new legislation and standards, culture, values and wellbeing. “Collaboration occurs via two main committees: the strategic committee, represented by senior managers, setting the forum’s direction, and the focus group committee, represented by safety and operational staff, addressing specific topics and working with members to achieve standardisation.” Azhar said there are a number of projects in UWA’s “collaboration pipeline” to continue playing an active role in the sector. “UWA has the energy and resources to provide quick solutions to the water industry,” he said. “We have the capability to develop best practices, which can be utilised by the wider industry and our service providers.”
VIRTUAL VIEW
While VR has generated headlines as a consumer-focused technology, its capabilities are also being harnessed by industry to deliver safety benefits. Ben Horan, Deakin University Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Advanced Design in Engineering Training (CADET) VR laboratory, who has been working with Melbourne Water on a number of VR initiatives, explained that VR is rapidly advancing “I don’t believe we will get to the point where the realism of VR exceeds reality. However, it does facilitate access to virtual environments that wouldn’t be otherwise possible,” he said. “In such cases, I would say it can be more effective than traditional training.” Horan advocates a balanced approach, employing both VR and traditional
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Industry Safety
training, focusing on engaging users’ other senses when required. “For instance, if we are training someone to isolate a complex piece of plant, we would like to have them use their hands to interact with the virtual environment to press buttons and turn valves,” he said. “This is a much more natural way to interact, and means skills acquired during training can be more readily transferred to the real task.” Scott McMillan, Melbourne Water Safety Manager, Technology and Innovation, also pointed to VR’s capacity to supplement traditional training programs. “There’s really no replacement for actually operating a valve with a trainer standing next to you, but this isn’t always possible,” he said. “We can’t always have equipment available to be worked on at the same time that people are available. Traditional training relies on remembering everything from your training session, but VR allows you to refresh yourself 10 minutes before you actually need to use those skills.”
SAFER TRAINING
Melbourne Water has adopted VR as an integral component of its plant design review process, which McMillan said has allowed the utility to address ergonomics issues – staff are able to familiarise themselves with equipment before the concrete has been poured. “VR is the best way to engage with all stakeholders from design, construction and operations,” he said. “This initiative has changed the way people engage with plant design, improving people’s ownership of the site, and this always leads to better safety outcomes.” McMillan said Melbourne Water continues to partner with Deakin University to design and build a multi-user platform that can be dialled in from anywhere in the world. “We used this platform to build isolation training for our Eastern Treatment Plant’s ozone generators,” he said. “This state-of-the-art training system uses hand-tracking and wireless headsets to let users interact with the virtual plant by closing valves and pressing buttons.”
VR IS THE BEST WAY TO ENGAGE WITH ALL STAKEHOLDERS FROM DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATIONS. BEN HORAN, DEAKIN UNIVERSIT Y
SAFER TOGETHER Like the water industry, the oil and gas industry preside over long-term, typically complex projects that occupy a large geographical area and present inherent safety challenges. Established in 2014, industry body Safer Together – comprising more than 170 member companies operating in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory – is dedicated to developing a safer industry. The backbone of Safer Together is a network of seven working groups, each undertaking specific work streams decided by member companies via its Industry Safety Forum. “As industry matures there is a need to engage senior leaders of both operating and contracting companies in building a culture to foster continual safety improvements,” Safer Together Forum Coordinator Sean O’Donnell commented. “The benefits for all collaborating companies are clear common standards and tools, together with shared expectations of implementation.” O’Donnell pointed to the importance of a transparent and inclusive environment, with contractors comprehensively involved in the process. “Best practice is achieved by sharing learnings and innovations, and determining industry standards,” he said. “Collaboration also reduces cynicism and builds trust and engagement with industry peers, regulators and the workforce – with multiple flow-on benefits. It allows for active risk management at an industry level and raises the bar for everyone involved.”
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Melbourne Water is exploring additional VR applications, with the utility having also used VR as a community engagement tool, helping a community understand what their local floodway will look like after modifications. “Immersive technologies are a fantastic way to bring everyone together on the same page. Looking at drawings on a bit of paper doesn’t always work for everyone,” McMillan said.
CLOSE CALL
A snake bite first-aid training program, developed by Melbourne Water in conjunction with Deakin University, sees trainees receive traditional training and don a VR headset. McMillan explained that trainees look for and gain an understanding of snake habitats virtually before applying first-aid techniques. “Unfortunately, looking for snakes may lead to one biting your leg,” he said. “Once this happens, you have to put your newly learnt training into action by taking the headset off and putting a snake bite bandage on. “You then put the headset back on and a headset camera evaluates if you’ve bandaged yourself correctly.”
MACHINE MIND
Machine learning is another comparatively new technology with the potential to deliver industry and community safety benefits across a range of applications. Veolia Australia and New Zealand Data Scientist Valentin Moreau explained that machine learning allows for reproducing human intuition through statistical analysis of large datasets, with the banking and power industries among those having actively deployed the technology.
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Moreau noted the water industry rarely uses machine learning, but highlighted its potential to predict network issues. “For these two applications, machine learning can help utilities move from reactive to proactive operations,” Moreau said. “At the moment, most sewer blockages and water bursts are detected only when reported by customers. With machine learning, we can predict where these failures will happen and organise preventative maintenance to avoid these issues.” This can result in direct safety benefits, with Veolia Project Manager Quentin Bechet pointing to the potential to prevent hazardous situations such as sewer blockages. “These unfortunate events can lead to populations being exposed to sewage and can have a dramatic impact on the health of nearby residents,” Bechet stated. “Being able to prevent sewer blockages would definitely minimise these risks.”
Bechet noted machine learning’s potential to detect water-quality issues. “Water utilities must ensure that water provided to populations abides by quality standards, and this can in practice be very difficult when water has to travel in dozens-to-hundreds of kilometres of pipes before reaching customers,” he said. “Again, the idea is to be really proactive and take action before water quality degrades and starts impacting the health of populations.”
STRONG SAFETY
Griffith University Research Fellow Jop Havinga stressed the importance of encouraging employees to take initiative in creating a productive safety culture, noting a compliance-based approach can produce counterproductive outcomes. “What I think is behind a lot of compliance culture, or at least the people aiming for compliance, is the view that: as long as we check for everything, make
sure that things aren’t any different from the way we planned it, things will work out okay,” he said. “However, reality is often different – there’s often multiple things happening at once, there’s always unexpected differences.” Havinga recommends empowering employees and promoting open communication, noting it’s important not to limit conversations directly to safety. “By taking time to listen to people, not limiting the conversation to typical safety language, you can find out a lot more. This works by letting the people who have the most knowledge, who see the actual status of the worksite, be the ones to make the call,” he said. Additionally Havinga said approaching safety management as a constant learning process is important. “I don’t even know if I would consider safety separate from work,” he said. “Often making things safer can also make work easier and more pleasant.”
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Waste Recovery
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AS GOVERNMENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA PRIORITISE THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY, WATER UTILITIES ARE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN CLOSING THE LOOP. TURNING WASTE INTO SOURCES OF REVENUE, THE SECTOR IS HELPING KEEP COMMUNITIES CLEAN. By Josh Hoey
R
ecycling and re-use are big business, and state governments are laying the groundwork to expand the sector by releasing policies on the circular economy. This year, NSW released its circular economy policy to improve the management and re-use of waste, while Victoria expects to release a policy later this year. And while water recycling has been key to the water sector’s participation in the circular economy, waste re-use and biosolids are showing huge potential in the circular economy.
RESOURCE RECOVERY
From direct land application to improve soil quality, to co-digestion, waste to energy, and mine rehabilitation, utilities around Australia are exploring novel ways to manage waste streams, turning them into revenue generating resources. Recent research has even found biosolids beneficial for producing bricks in the construction industry. “The whole space is evolving, and in the near future it may well be that we make bricks and other construction materials out of biosolids. There is also the potential to create crude oil out of biosolids,” New Zealand’s Watercare Services Resource Recovery Manager Rob Tinholt said. “All those futures are something that might be realised over the next few decades.” Turning waste streams such as biosolids, as well as trade and food waste, into revenue streams has clear benefits for both water utilities and their customers. After Melbourne Water installed its first activated sludge facility at its Western Treatment Plant in 2001, the utility saw a dramatic increase in the production of biosolids. Initially the biosolids were stockpiled, but with space quickly running out, the utility has been using some of the biosolids for direct-land application on nearby broadacre farms.
“For broadscale agriculture crops like wheat, sorghum, corn, biosolids have been shown to really improve crop yield,” Kelly Hopewell said, Coordinator of Process Engineering at the City of Gold Coast and chair of the Australian & New Zealand Biosolids Partnership (ANZBP) Technical Board. “This is especially beneficial in Australia with the poor soils that we have.” Many utilities use biosolids for such direct land applications, and Hopewell said Australia is a world leader in such re-use. “New Zealand has struggled to have a land application program, and in other areas, like Europe, where they don’t have the land we do, they’ve had to resort to incineration of biosolids, which is not a great way to use the carbon,” she said. While it is great for closing the loop between agriculture and consumption, it does require considerable transport and suitable farming land. For the City of Gold Coast and others in South East Queensland, direct land application means trucking biosolids a considerable way to agricultural areas around Toowoomba for application. But direct land application has its limits. “The Western [Treatment Plant] produces over 40,000 dry tonnes of biosolids a year – a big production – and we’ve been using between 3500-6000 tonnes a year for direct land application, so we’re really looking to broaden that to other nearby farming areas,” Melbourne Water Manager of Treatment and Resources, Integrated Planning Jenelle Watson said. “We’re trying to come up with a basket of biosolids reuse options to enable us to have a reliable, 100% re-use of annual production from Western Treatment Plant within the next 10 to 12 years.” The utility is currently looking at number of possible solutions, from pyrolysis and gasification, to hydrothermal processes such as supercritical oxidation to manage and find end-to-end uses for their biosolids. “We’re also part of an ARENA project with Southern Oil Refining looking at hydrothermal liquefaction,” Watson said, a process which transforms biosolids into a hydrocarbon product.
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BROADENING BIOSOLID APPLICATION For other utilities, co-digestion of sludge with green and food waste is proving useful for increasing biogas production from wastewater processing, as well as improving the quality of resulting biosolids and increasing the options for their use. While biosolids with lower contaminant and pathogen grades can be used for broadscale agriculture, their use in urban parks and gardens is limited. “Stringent guidelines are a good and bad thing for the industry. They protect us, but they also limit which avenues you can use your biosolids on,” Hopewell said. “But through composting and co-digestion with green waste, we dilute the chemicals and contaminants and improve biosolid quality.” The City of Gold Coast is currently looking at the potential of green waste in improving biosolid quality so that it can be used around the city rather than trucked to farms around Toowoomba. “Eventually we’d like to be able to promote that we are using these products around the City,” she said. Hopewell and others in the industry agree that moving beyond simple waste management requires a change in
STRINGENT GUIDELINES ARE A GOOD AND BAD THING FOR THE INDUSTRY. KELLY HOPEWELL, CIT Y OF GOLD COAST
mind-set, to start seeing waste as a revenue. “Before we just managed drinking and wastewater services, but now water services, waste and landfill are all managed together, and we have more opportunities. We’re looking at synergies between food waste, green waste, and biosolids, and instead of calling them separate waste streams, we’re calling it our bio-resources strategy,” Hopewell said. At Watercare Services, Tinholt said a similar change in approach has been essential. “My job used to be biosolids manager, and now it’s resource recovery manager. It’s deliberately to identify new ways to create beneficial pathways for our resources,” he said. As industries such as metal plating and others move offshore, Watercare has seen its biosolid contaminant levels improve. And the utility is about to build a thermal hydrolysis plant at its Rosedale water treatment plant, dramatically increasing the pathogen quality of biosolids. “All being equal, in the near future we will have a class AA biosolid product,” Tinholt said, opening up a range of uses for the biosolids. Increased treatment of biosolids with process like thermal hydrolysis also boosts the yield of biogas from the process. “The more biogas you generate, the more electricity. It’s one way to offset the additional treatment, getting green energy credits back by producing green electricity,” Hopewell said.
INNOVATIVE NZ When New Zealand water utility Watercare Services upgraded their Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant outside of Auckland in 2000, the associated increase in biosolid production pushed the utility to find a long-term solution to the waste stream. “We had a local solution, but we knew that by 2014 we’d run out of capacity. So, in 2006, we started to look at other options,” Watercare Resource Recovery Manager Rob Tinholt said. The utility looked at producing a fertiliser product from the biosolids or sending it to landfill. Both options were difficult, didn’t guarantee future security and would have meant at least 30 additional trucks per day on local roads.
With the quarry three kilometres from the treatment plant coming to the end of its life, Watercare saw an opportunity. “We put our thinking caps on and thought if we rehabilitate a quarry and turn it back into the original landscape, we could gift that back to Auckland as a regional reserve,” Tinholt said. Rehabilitating the nearby quarry with the biosolids has benefits for both Watercare and the local community. The island is connected by causeway, removing the need for truck transport via public road and using less fuel to dispose of biosolids. Rehabilitating the quarry is a more cost-effective solution for managing biosolids and will take in 330 tonnes of biosolids a day through to 2049.
www.awa.asn.au
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FOOD TO ENERGY
Meanwhile, Yarra Valley Water (YVW) has found a whole new use for a once difficult waste stream. Food waste and high-strength liquid organic waste is converted to energy at their Wollert waste-to-energy facility in Melbourne’s north. “Currently our 33,000 tonnes of food waste that we process at Wollert and convert across to electricity then allows us to cover around about 25% of our total energy bills across the business,” YVW Waste to Energy Services Manager Damien Bassett said. The food waste would otherwise go to landfill, while the high-strength liquid organic waste would normally be disposed through the trade waste system, meaning costly sewer maintenance. According to YVW figures, the plant saves the utility around $60,000 per month. “One of the drivers was to be able to reduce costs overall. By investing in these technologies, it allows us to help in reducing bills,” Bassett said. Digestate produced from the waste-to-energy plant is currently added to biosolids which then go to the western water treatment plant. “It has added nutrient value to those biosolids that didn’t exist previously, because our material is organic and quite rich in nutrients,” Bassett said. YVW is currently working with the Environmental Protection Agency to develop legislation that would facilitate the use of the digestate for other re-use.
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COMMUNITY MINDED
For the proponents of waste re-use schemes, the benefits for the communities served by water utilities are clear – waste reduction, reduced landfill and greenhouse gas emissions, and an improved environment. “It’s about intergenerational equity,” Watson said. “We’re not leaving a stockpile of biosolids for future generations, and reducing stockpiles helps reduce emissions.” The end products from re-use schemes also benefit communities. And re-use can generate new revenue and savings that can be passed on to customers. “They can produce alternative fuels or energy, or a compost product that’s great for improving land quality,” Watson said. Hopewell said: “Beneficially re-using biosolids is much more cost-effective than landfill. If we can divert biosolids away from landfill, then we are saving costs for community.”
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ustralia has a long history of adversity when it comes to water scarcity and, as most water professionals know, the water sector’s knowledge in service provision has been hard-won. Facing water shortages is nothing new on the driest continent on earth and the water sector has had to adapt, innovate and reconsider future supply options on many occasions. However, there’s an upside to this hardship – the Australian water sector is now looked to by the world as one of the most experienced and knowledgeable nations when it comes to water technology, policy and pragmatism. Australia’s history of water reform offers examples of leading practice for many other countries faced with similar dilemmas, including those nations on our doorstep in the Asia-Pacific region. With international neighbours growing profoundly, both in terms of population and economic development, the Australian Government is transitioning towards bolstering trade-based relationships with many countries in Asia. Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited Vietnam in late August with the intention of continuing strategic partnerships. “It’s an extraordinary journey we’ve been on to get to this point in our relationship,” Morrison said.
“An outlook that sees a combination of independent sovereign states simply seeking to lift the standards of living of its peoples, to live peacefully with each other, and to seek the best for each other. “Our goal is to become top-10 trade and investment partners and our strategy will help both countries take advantage of those emerging market opportunities and shared trade commitments we have already entered into.”
CREATING CONNECTIONS
The Australian Water Association’s International Program has an important role to play in terms of facilitating and supporting connections between the Australian water sector and its international counterparts, including the exposure of supply and demand for Australia’s expertise, technology and innovation in safe water provision. Since 2015, the AWA has been engaging with international partners, such as the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA), in order to leverage trade outcomes for Australian water businesses by fostering trusted and genuine connections. AWA Chief Executive Jonathan McKeown said members can now enjoy more detailed business facilitation via the Association’s International Program: “The Association has signed MoUs with equivalent national water bodies
THIS PROGRAM WILL CREATE LONGTERM RELATIONSHIPS AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE BETWEEN CAMBODIAN AND AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTIONS. ANGELA CORCORAN, AUSTRALIAN AMBASSADOR TO CAMBODIA
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5-7 May 2020 Adelaide Convention Centre
Program launched & registrations open in November The biggest international water conference and exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere www.ozwater.org
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International
across the Asia Pacific Region to provide reciprocal market access and to exchange trade and technical intelligence. “Our International Program is now able to offer more detailed business facilitation in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. With the support of both DFAT and Austrade, AWA can now facilitate much more comprehensive assistance for members seeking to develop new business across the Asia Pacific region.” Part of this cultivation has included a strong and direct connection with the Vietnamese water sector via delegations to Vietwater, Vietnam’s largest water trade exhibition. Participating in the AWA’s international delegation to Vietwater for two years running, Akvotek CEO Mark Forbes said the AWA’s international programming has been pivotal in terms of opening business opportunities abroad. “Trying to do everything from Australia is difficult. You’ve got to be able to set up local manufacturing and have some degree of local representation, and we were able to form that through the involvement with the AWA,” he said. Australian Consul-General Julianne Cowley visited Akvotek’s new treatment plant in Vietnam with Forbes recently. “It is always exciting to see Australian innovation being applied in new ways and in new markets,” she said. “Australia and Vietnam have a strong partnership between our governments and our private sectors – there are good foundations for working together.”
PAIRING UP
Further to facilitating international delegations, the AWA and VWSA have also partnered to deliver the Water Utility Improvement Program (WUIP). With thanks to funding awarded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through the Australian Water Partnership, the WUIP works to connect Australian and Vietnamese water utilities in order to facilitate cross-sector knowledge sharing. Since the program’s inception, five pairings have been made, with the pairings including delivery of workshops, training courses, meetings, presentations and site visits by each utility.
YOU’VE GOT TO BE ABLE TO SET UP LOCAL MANUFACTURING AND HAVE SOME DEGREE OF LOCAL REPRESENTATION, AND WE WERE ABLE TO FORM THAT THROUGH THE INVOLVEMENT WITH THE AWA.
Akvotek Director Mark Forbes and Australian Consul-General Julianne Cowley
MARK FORBES, AKVOTEK
AIDING TRADE: AKVOTEK IN VIETNAM Delivering technology to support increased access to safe drinking water through AWA’s DFAT-funded aid program, Australian water business Akvotek have gone on to leverage further commercial partnerships in Vietnam. Akvotek CEO Mark Forbes said that although the DFAT-funded program is focused on aid, the real benefit comes through creating trade-based partnerships that allow for further growth and development of water infrastructure. “Our real skill is water recycling, but we also treat river water to produce potable water for community households. We have unique, world-leading technology and, via our involvement with DFAT, we now work with private-water operators in Vietnam. We build water treatment plants at the water source, and sell treated water to the cities,” he said. Akvotek have gone onto develop trade partnerships with Vietnamese industrial precincts, applying Australian technology in the service of industrial wastewater treatment. “We’re now also working with several other opportunities in industrial water reuse for specific industrial park treatment processes. In Vietnam, they have huge industrial parks. The owner of the precinct provides water and wastewater treatment for all of the clients,” he said. “These precincts are seriously large. They’re kilometres across and they have very, very large flows of water and wastewater.” In terms of what other Australian water businesses can expect from getting involved in international trade-based partnerships, Forbes said starting with strong business relationships is the first step to being successful. “What’s important, if you’re going to do anything in a place like Vietnam, is forming relationships with other organisations there that can get you into the market from a Vietnamese cost standpoint. With respect to our Vietnamese partners, they’ve got their pricing right. They’ve got local technical support, local service support, and unless you do all of that, you are not going to be successful,” Forbes said. “AWA certainly helped on this front. They enabled us to get in front of the right people, which has been enormously helpful, and the fact that DFAT have been able to get our equipment on the ground in front of the market is extremely helpful as well.”
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Furthermore, cross-sector capability development has been bolstered via sharing of design information, asset registers, water safety plans, HR recruitment templates, business processes, technology innovations, software tools and guidelines. Paired with Vietnam’s HueWACO, Water Corporation’s Cristiano Carvalho said the pairing program was hugely beneficial, not only in the way of sharing knowledge, but of developing and building on an understanding of how different cultures approach the same task. “It is very important to remember that the program is about two-way learning. It’s very interesting to see cohesion, when it does happen, between processes. But it’s also about embracing diversity,” he said. “It gave us the opportunity to see the way HueWACO does things. Vietnam has a very different political, economic and social environment. “We might not do business the same way, but being exposed to different approaches is eye opening and certainly allows for reflection, learning and understanding.”
AWA DELEGATION TO INDONESIA
In September 2019, the AWA escorted the first Australian delegation to the Indonesia Water & Wastewater Expo & Forum in Jakarta. Hosted by the AWA’s MoU partner PERPAMSI, the peak water supply association of Indonesia, the event offered delegates the opportunity to network with more than 200 exhibitors, and 5000 visitors from 10 countries and regions.
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IT'S VERY INTERESTING TO SEE COHESION, WHEN IT DOES HAPPEN, BETWEEN PROCESSES. BUT IT’S ALSO ABOUT EMBRACING DIVERSITY. CRISTIANO CARVAHLO, WATER CORPORATION
BROADENING REACH With the benefits of these activities clearly proven, the AWA is now growing its international platform for trade with other Asia-Pacific countries, with a strong focus on Indonesia and Cambodia. Facilitated by the AWA with their partner, the Cambodian Water Supply Association (CWA), the Cambodian Water Utility Improvement Program was announced in June 2019, as part of the Australian Government’s Investing in Infrastructure program. The Cambodian WUIP has connected Australia’s South East Water with three Cambodian private water utilities through a two-year knowledge sharing program to improve access to safe and reliable water for thousands of Cambodians. Australian Ambassador to Cambodia Angela Corcoran said the partnership will provide both nations
with exposure to technology and management practices. “This program will create long-term relationships and knowledge exchange between Cambodian and Australian institutions,” Corcoran said. “This is part of our commitment to supporting Cambodia to develop the quality infrastructure and services it needs to transition to a more resilient, inclusive and prosperous country.” Further to taking the WUIP to Cambodia, the AWA is also in the process of organising an international delegation to Phnom Penh for the Cambodian Water Conference and Exhibition in October 2019. For more information on how to get involved in AWA’s international delegation, please contact AWA International Manager Paul Smith.
PAIRING UP: WATER CORPORATION AND HUEWACO Under the Vietnam WUIP, Water Corporation was paired up with HueWACO to share knowledge, industry insights and expertise. Water Corporation’s Vietnam WUIP Lead Cristiano Carvalho said that one of the main aims of the pairing was to focus on capacity building. “For the most part, our knowledge sharing was about multi-disciplinary capacity building. We explored ways of knowledge sharing and training by sending Water Corporation representatives to Vietnam, and by hosting HueWACO representatives here in Perth. “We had around six or seven deployments each way. For the first deployment, we developed a program and action plan. “We engaged in presentations, training workshops, exchange of materials, site visits and design reviews, too. We also did some informal mentoring when we had enough people to set up that kind of face-to-face engagement, which has continued on.” Carvalho said that, although the deployment groups were small, the subject matter covered was very broad. “We spoke about asset management, about HueWACO’s water mains replacement. We spoke about device treatment systems that could be applied. We even spoke about salary management and human resources! We did a lot of knowledge sharing, from every aspect of utility business.”
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Infographic
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SUSTAINABILITY
IN SOUTH ASIA PACIFIC GDP GROWTH PER ANNUM 2009-2019 8
CAMBODIA
7
6
VIETNAM
5
INDONESIA
4
3 2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
TOTAL TRADE
VIETNAM
INDONESIA
CAMBODIA
GDP GROWTH R ATE AVER AGED
GDP GROWTH
GDP GROWTH R ATE EXPANDED
➔ 6.28%
➔ 5.28%
AUSTRALIA – VIETNAM $14 BILLION AUSTRALIA – CAMBODIA $609 MILLION AUSTRALIA – INDONESIA $16.8 BILLION
FROM 2000 UNTIL 2018 REACHING AN ALL TIME HIGH OF
FROM 2000 UNTIL 2019
IN 2018 FROM THE PREVIOUS YEAR
REACHING AN ALL TIME HIGH OF
GDP ANNUAL GROWTH R ATE IN CAMBODIA AVER AGED
7.16%
➔
➔
8.46%
IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2007
➔ 7.58%
IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2004
FROM 1994 UNTIL 2018
AND A RECORD LOW OF
70
IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2001
13.30%
IN 2005 AND A RECORD LOW OF
0.10%
➔
$
1.56%
REACHING AN ALL TIME HIGH OF
➔
GDP
IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2009
AND A RECORD LOW OF
➔
➔
3.14%
7.50%
➔
(2017-19)
R ATE AVER AGED
IN 2009
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SDG AVERAGE PERFORMANCE (%) VIETNAM 0
25
50
INDONESIA 75
100
0
25
50
CAMBODIA 75
100
0
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50
75
100
1 NO POVERT Y 2 ZERO HUNGER 3 GOOD HEATH & WELLBEING 4 QUALIT Y EDUCATION 5 GENDER EQUALIT Y 6 CLEAN WATER & SANITATION 7 AFFORDABLE CLEAN ENERGY 8 DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH 9 INDUSTRY, INNOVATION & INFRASTRUCTURE 10 REDUCED INEQUALITIES 11 SUSTAINABLE CITIES & COMMUNITIES 12 RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION & PRODUCTION 13 CLIMATE ACTION 14 LIFE BELOW WATER 15 LIFE ON LAND 16 PEACE, JUSTICE & STRONG INSTITUTIONS 17 PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS
SDG6 WATER PERFORMANCE CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION POPULATION USING AT LEAST BASIC DRINKING WATER SERVICES POPULATION USING AT LEAST BASIC SANITATION SERVICES FRESHWATER WITHDRAWAL AS % TOTAL RENEWABLE WATER RESOURCES IMPORTED GROUNDWATER DEPLETION (m 3 / YEAR/CAPITA) ANTHROPOGENIC WASTEWATER THAT RECEIVES TREATMENT (%)
VIETNAM
INDONESIA
CAMBODIA
91.2% 78.2% 12.8% 3.2% 0.2%
89.5% 67.9% 9.2% 1.5% 0%
75% 48.8% 0.6% 0.2% 0%
Reference: tradingeconomics.com, unstats.un.org/sdgs
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Guntur Widyatama
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“
APP Group’s water treatment plant at Pindo Deli 2, processes 33 million litres of water per day, for paper and pulp production. Eight filters, containing, two hundred and fifty tonnes of DMI-65®, remove iron and manganese to below the Indonesian Standard of <0.02ppm Fe and <0.05ppm Mn Industrial Development Manager Water Treatment, Process Chemicals, Mining & Oilfield Division
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DMI-65® FOR IRON AND MANGANESE REMOVAL IRON AND MANGANESE REMOVAL: Build up of iron and manganese in the filter system results in very high maintenance overheads, loss of production and potentially system failure. DMI-65® efficiently removes dissolved iron to the almost undetectable levels as low as 0.005mg/L and manganese to 0.001mg/L as well as particulate, effectively removing this risk. REMOVAL OF TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLIDS AND TURBIDITY: The DMI-65® also provides the perfect filtration coefficient resulting in excellent mechanical filtration lowering total suspended solids (TSS) to less than 1mg/L and turbidity levels less than 1 NTU. REDUCED COSTS: The total cost of the iron and manganese removal water filtration system is significantly less than alternative solutions, the effectiveness, but relative simplicity, of DMI65® based systems reduces the upfront capital expenditure on plant complexity as well as the ongoing operational expenditure in chemicals, power and backwash waste water recovery. HIGH FLOW RATES: The infused technology of DMI-65® promotes the highest oxidation rate of any catalytic filtration media. This permits a significantly higher water flow rate to achieve the same level of iron and manganese removal. DMI-65 can operate at linear filtration velocities up to twice that of conventional media with a corresponding reduction in capital equipment costs. HIGH LOAD CAPACITY: DMI-65® also has higher iron and manganese load capacity which can extend the duration of filter runs and the time between backwashing, thereby reducing downtime, operating expense and wastage. REGENERATION NOT REQUIRED: The media operates with a continuous injection of sodium hypochlorite at low residual levels (0.1 to 0.3mg/L) which eliminates the need for Potassium Permanganate. WIDE OPERATING ENVIRONMENT: Stable and satisfactory performance at pH 5.8 to 8.6 and a maximum operating temperature of 113° F (45°C) reduces the need for investment to alter the operating environment. LONG LIFE: DMI-65® is not consumed in the process giving it an expected operational life of up to 10 years, providing considerable advantages over other processes or media. The media does not display a decaying capacity to do its catalytic work. Over the 5 to 10 year period, through many backwashing operations of the bed to remove retained solids, an attrition loss of the media occurs by contact between particles and mechanical abrasion.
“Advanced Filtration Media”
® www.dmi65.com info@dmi65.com +61 1300 303 281
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Managing Disruption
WATER,
INTERRUPTED WHETHER IT’S A BURST MAIN, CRUCIAL MAINTENANCE WORKS, PROJECT INSTALLATIONS OR A GRIZZLY ‘FAT BERG’ CLOGGING A SEWAGE NETWORK, MANAGING COMMUNITY DISRUPTION IS A CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF ANY WATER UTILITY’S JOB.
ER CRISIS AT 20 W
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here are plenty of examples of community disruption that don’t involve civil works, and many of them require water utilities to respond: natural disasters, water shortages and contamination scares, just to name a few. With the effects of climate change and growing populations placing evermore stress on our water supplies, here we take stock of how major disruptions have been managed and share insights on how it can be done better.
DISTURBANCE DONE RIGHT
Day Zero sounds like the title of an apocalyptic action film, and for the Western Cape region of South Africa, home to 5.8 million people, it was almost a reality. In late 2017 and early 2018, the city of Cape Town became the first major city in the world to potentially run out of water, with dam levels as low as 13.5%. ‘Day Zero’ referred to extreme water restrictions, where municipal water supplies would largely be turned off and residents would have to queue for a daily water ration. “The process by which water reaches individual taps across any modern city is immensely complex. And, historically, cities and utilities have taken pride in not bothering the citizens about how this happens,” Peter Willis said, a senior associate at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in Cape Town. “The deal is you just pay us your rates, and we will supply the water and everybody’s happy. It’s when that system breaks down, however, that that agreement breaks down. “After months of the mayor saying that a well-run city does not run out of water, there’s nothing to see here, leave it to us, there came a moment when they realised that they needed the citizens to drop an extra amount of consumption quite rapidly.” Willis said the city managed this monumental switch in communications and strategy by first talking to business associations, to allow them time to secure their own water supply and go off grid. Then, they went to the public with data to show the severity of the problem. “The bulk of water users in Cape Town, people who conventionally use a lot of water in their middle-class lives, all suddenly got to know how the system works, and that it is fallible, and that there are a lot of things we can do to reduce our vulnerability to a catastrophe.” The city broke records in reducing consumption to less than half of what it was at the beginning of the three-year drought, which is believed to be a world first in consumption reduction. As Day Zero approached, Cape Town managed to save approximately 713 ML per day against a target of 500 ML per day. “The last bit, the last vital drop, came because we got really scared,” Willis said. “There’s a very obvious strategic question to be asked by any city or authority: at what point do you scare your customers, your citizens? Because it’s you that’s really playing with fire. And politically, we don’t want to scare voters. But it did have a very electrifying effect on household consumption.”
CAPTURING HARD-WON WISDOM
Willis said the crisis became unnerving as residents realised that social unrest might come to fruition on account of water restrictions. “The actual challenge was reducing water and still living a decent life, and we managed,” Willis said. As the Cape Town crisis receded, Willis and colleagues moved to establish an initiative aimed at capturing the lessons learned from what had passed as a hair-raising event in Cape Town’s history. “Like Australia, we are vulnerable to climate change if all we have is surface water. Everybody is working on this common problem with adaptation and innovation,” Willis said. “But it struck me that there is no institutional mechanism that exists for us to capture the changes that we’re making, the things we’re learning, the innovations we’re
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When Townsville suffered severe floods in February 2019, its utility systems and preparedness was put to the test. “The council, and the whole disaster coordination, was focused on minimising the impact on the community. That was where our learning and focus was. Dam safety is always critical, and a lot of our work was downstream – working with the community, evacuating the community, and working with all the other agencies to manage that,” Townsville City Council Water and Waste General Manager Scott Moorhead said. Moorhead believes the communication between different government departments was the best he has ever seen. Moorhead said the city is always looking to improve their procedures, particularly around emergency actions. “The police didn’t want to do a forced evacuation, as that would then cause a new set of problems. Leaving was voluntary, and one of the success factors of the whole operation was that there were no fatalities caused by opening the dam. That was our first priority.”
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putting in place, and remembering what worked and didn’t work – because there is going to be a next time.” Willis helped form the Cape Town Drought Response Learning Initiative (CTDRLI), which has recorded a film library of interviews with people who helped manage the crisis. “We’ve also begun to distill some 33 hours of footage in what we’re calling ‘modular lessons’,” Willis said. “These will be 15-minute films, each focusing on a different lesson. They cover things like: how do you affect household level change? What did we learn about the dilemma of utilities selling water? And then asking people to use less of it? And then their revenue crashes? How do you get out of that data?” The interviews are also being used by CTDRLI for a documentary to help spread the message that cities, and citizens, need to be aware that Day Zero may one day become a reality.
FACING UP TO CHALLENGES WE RAN THE INFORMATION CAMPAIGN PREDOMINANTLY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA, AND THE RESPONSE WAS PHENOMENAL. ANNA JACKSON, SA WATER
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Many utilities haven’t come close to dealing with a crisis like Cape Town’s, but for ordinary residents, a standard water disruption can still be distressing. The challenges faced by utilities during disruptive works and events are many, but communication is the most important factor in alleviating them, according to SA Water Customers, Strategy and Innovation General Manager Anna Jackson. A recent outage to a regional community put SA Water’s incident management plan to the test. What they didn’t expect was the community response. “We found a leak on a main transfer pipe running through to a community with over 7000 customers. Once we determined the extent of the damage, we had to make sure we assembled the right people – not just the engineers, but getting customer communication and customer care in the room with them, too.” SA Water’s incident response is highly proactive, Jackson said, and runs at an operational level with executives kept informed of events. The repair work was complex, with the pipe running under a footbridge and surrounded by concrete, on top of turning off the water supply to a whole community. “We ran the information campaign predominantly through social media, and the response was phenomenal,” Jackson said.
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Managing Disruption “We pushed most of it out through Facebook. We found that when we targeted geographical areas, people in the community began tagging other people in the community, and it became quite an organic community campaign.” Though digital communication is a boon to utilities working with disruptions and crises, water literacy still remains a challenge.
RESPONDING TO CONTAMINATION
In 2016, lead was detected in the drinking water of a number of public buildings in Perth, including the children’s hospital. These detections attracted strong media interest and public concern. Water Corporation coordinated a detailed plan of action to determine the situation and reaffirm confidence in the safety of drinking water throughout the state. A report into the incident, Lead in the Water: A Water Utilities Reponse, notes that as part of the response, additional sampling points were installed at the site of the children’s hospital and sampling frequency for lead was increased at many key locations. “To further validate the water quality information of our metro distribution system, samples were collected at key locations corresponding to the higher risk points of supply (such as hospitals, aged care, and schools),” the report states. For managing residents’ fears, the sampling frequency was further increased, and the public were informed and given access to information on how to manage potable water. For buildings, the report found there “must be collaboration between regulators, property owners and key organisations. For these sites, to achieve safe water post meter involves assessment, monitoring, understanding and operation of often complex water distribution systems.” Ultimately, the incident showed how changes in management or operation of a water distribution system can have considerable consequences for lead in drinking water. And given that community concern and media reports that arose from these events was significant, it can take many years before public confidence in drinking water safety is restored. AWA_HALFPAGE_AD_GENERATORS_PR.pdf 1 19/04/2018 10:33:42 AM
THE LAST BIT, THE LAST VITAL DROP, CAME BECAUSE WE GOT REALLY SCARED. PETER WILLIS, UNIVERSIT Y OF CAMBRIDGE
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Regional Water Security
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WATER SCARCITY IS A FIXED ISSUE IN MANY REGIONAL AREAS AROUND AUSTRALIA. BEYOND ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC CONCERNS, THE IMPACT SHORTAGES HAVE ON COMMUNITIES CAN BE DEVASTATING. HERE, CURRENT EXPLORES HOW COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT CAN HELP TO ALLEVIATE SOCIAL STRAIN AND DETERMINE PRIORITIES. By Martin Kovacs
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auging the social effects of water shortages can be difficult due to the sustained nature of drought events. But, as with other extreme weather events, the effects are often far-reaching. As noted by Emma Austin, a PhD Researcher at the Centre for Water, Climate and Land at the University of Newcastle, drought stands in contrast to other extreme weather events, such as flooding and bushfires, in that it represents a “slow-onset extreme”. “We know that rapid extremes like floods can have acute and long-term impacts, and many people have long-term mental health problems as a result,” Austin said. “Less is known about chronic extremes like drought. Personal and social consequences develop as a result of the unfamiliarity, unpredictability and longevity of drought.”
SOCIAL SORROW Exploring the link between drought and wellbeing, and ways people adapt and cope with drought, Austin explained that her research has focused on drought-related stress experienced by farmers in New South Wales. Austin said farmers aged between 18 and 35, who live and worked on their farm, and who are isolated and experience financial hardship, are more likely to experience drought-related stress.
“Community impacts of drought can include people leaving the area, losing businesses and services, and people not getting together as much,” Austin said. “Other community impacts can include changes in the countryside, such as the impact of looking out at dry paddocks and not being able to water your garden, along with reduced water quality.” Austin pointed to the importance of having structures in place to help communities cope and adapt during water shortages, describing planning as essential. “Policy needs to support long-term resilience through planning and preparation, even in non-drought times. Policy, funding and community initiatives must support ongoing, long-term planning,” she said.
COMMUNITY MINDED Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) Councillor and Water and Waste Committee Chair Nancy Sommerfield stressed the importance of keeping communities informed about local government initiatives. From water security updates to education programs, Sommerfield said engagement provides benefits for both councils and communities. “We think it is really important to keep the community in the loop about what we are doing,” she said.
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Digital Twin
Reality Capture
VR AR Immersive Learning
Taylors - Making Waves in Innovation Water Industy Specialists AWA13_78-83_REGIONAL WATER_V4.indd 80
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Regional Water Security
COMMUNITIES, LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, IRRIGATION ORGANISATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS ALL HAVE TO BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION. PROFESSOR BARRY HART, MONASH UNIVERSIT Y
NSW Water Security The NSW Government established the Safe and Secure Water Program in 2017, addressing risks to regional water safety and security across the state. NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment Director of Water Utilities Michael Blackmore said the initiative follows on from earlier programs, including the Water Security for Regions Program and the Regional Water and Waste Water Backlog Program. “The NSW Government is investing in water security via its $1 billion Safe and Secure Water Program, which ensures regional NSW communities have access to high-quality, reliable and affordable water that meets modern environmental and health standards,” Blackmore said. “The Safe and Secure Water Program has so far committed more than $590 million to 81 water infrastructure projects.” Among these projects, Blackmore pointed to $8.2 million allocated under the program to fully fund a 535ML water storage project at Nyngan to improve water supply security. “The project is the second stage of the Nyngan-Cobar Water Supply Scheme upgrade works, with a 700 megalitre storage pond already completed in Stage One, under the Water Security for Regions Program,” he said. “Stage Two will allow for more water to be pumped from the local weir pool and stored in the new storage when weir pool levels are high.”
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“We’ve carried out a series of educational advertising campaigns via TV, paper, social media and radio to connect with people. “If you don’t engage with your community, they don’t know what’s going on and don’t make sure they’re careful with their water use.” Sommerfield pointed to the social impact of shortages being particularly pronounced in regional areas, and said TRC has undertaken a number of initiatives, including providing rate relief for graziers and farmers, and allowing for limited watering. “We’re very concerned for the mental status of our people out there, which is why we’ve ensured they’ve still been able to do some watering,” she said. “It’s important for people to have some greenery around them, and for their social health to continue to garden.” Amid ongoing concern about water security, Sommerfield highlighted the importance of preparing for future drought conditions, and said community engagement is an important component of this process. “It means that you’re taking people on the same journey. [It means] everybody understands what’s going on, as there’s nothing worse than being kept in the dark,” she said.
UTILITIES TO THE RESCUE Queensland’s Seqwater has looked to the past in planning for the future, with Corporate and Community Relations Manager Sophie Walker noting the utility does not have to go too far back to draw on lessons learnt from the Millennium Drought. Walker pointed to the importance of working with local councils and communities, and highlighted the role of engagement in Seqwater’s Water Security Program, which aims to secure potable water for south-east Queensland over the next 30 years. “Communities can become understandably anxious when there is media coverage or public discussion about water shortages and drought,” Walker said. “As the regional bulk-water supplier, it’s important for Seqwater to provide communities with the latest information on supply levels and drought mitigation measures, so they are aware and can respond accordingly.” Austin said Seqwater issues a weekly security and consumption update, and also regularly briefs councils and other local stakeholders on its adaptive drought response approach. As part of its community messaging, Walker said Seqwater utilises a range of traditional and digital media platforms, and works closely with its water service provider partners and their shareholding councils. “Research has shown that community members often look first to local councils for water supply information,” she said. “As a consequence, a partnered approach between Seqwater and local councils helps ensure community members receive more consistent messages about dam levels, drought response measures and water efficiency.”
www.awa.asn.au
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TOP 5 PODCASTS from Series 3 of our podcast channel
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Sandeep Sathyamoorthy on deammonification
4
Gary Hallas on identifying bacterial contaminants
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Matt Schnelle on critical infrastructure resilience
Chris Chesterfield on integrated urban and water planning
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Danielle Verdon Kidd on responding to mega droughts
Ben and wa tr
Listen to these podcasts and more at omny.fm/shows/australianwater or on Apple Podcasts
ian
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Regional Water Security
CROSS-JURISDICTIONAL COORDINATION Monash University Emeritus Professor Barry Hart highlighted the importance of a coordinated approach to cross-jurisdictional water management, from a local level through to state and federal ranks. Hart noted that, depending upon the nature of the decisions being made, regional engagement can allow communities to play a role in the wider process and help harness local insights. “Any agency developing a new water policy or strategy will need to undertake huge amounts of collaboration. Not only is the decision-maker, the politician, in a better position to know that all views have hopefully been taken into account, but also that the agency has made
better use of expertise and knowledge at a range of levels,” he said. The process of environmental watering is an example of the overarching coordination required. In Victoria, this is overseen by the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH). VEWH interacts at a federal level with the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, with its counterparts at a state level. “This is where communities, local governments, irrigation organisations and environmental groups all have to be part of the conversation,” Hart said. “This is almost a new-rule society, and the community has to be involved in these discussions, no question.”
SECURING FUTURE SUPPLIES: NATIONAL WATER GRID The Federal Government has advised the National Water Grid, dedicated to delivering strategic planning and project management for water policy and infrastructure across the nation, will be in place by the end of the year. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the grid will bring
together experts and provide for local stakeholder engagement. AWA CEO Jonathan McKeown said this national focus is a step in the right direction, but infrastructure shouldn’t be the only target. “We need to go beyond looking at water infrastructure in terms of dams
in regional areas and think about better utilisation of aquifer recharges, groundwater use and the opportunity to embrace a whole range of water recycling options,” McKeown said. “The important thing is to recognise our needs will be greater than the available surface water.”
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Hydropower
LIQUID GOLD PUMPED HYDRO HOW IT WORKS
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Renewable energy, such as wind or solar, is used to pump water uphill during times of low power demand.
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When demand increases, or wind or solar production drops, water runs downhill from an upper reservoir.
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Water runs through a turbine, creating electricity.
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Water can be pumped uphill and re-used for power generation again and again.
BY 2040 THE VAST MAJORITY OF AUSTRALIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S COAL-FIRED POWER STATIONS WILL HAVE GROUND TO A HALT AND THE NATION SHOULD BE RUNNING ON 85% RENEWABLE ENERGY. PUMPED HYDRO WILL BE KEY TO THAT TRANSFORMATION. By Thea Cowie
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umped hydro energy storage (PHES) systems could serve as Australia’s batteries in an energy market increasingly dominated by variable renewables. The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has found that the most cost-effective way to replace the nation’s ageing coal-fired power plants over the next 20 years is to boost solar power generation to 28 GW, increase wind power production to 10.5 GW and lift battery storage to 17 GW. That’s no mean feat, said Chris Gwynne, project director of Hydro Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation (BotN) initiative. “If I told you that we needed to replace nearly all of the nation’s road infrastructure in 20 years you’d be thinking ‘how on earth will we ever do that?’” he said. “But, essentially, that’s what we’re doing to the power system.”
WHY PUMPED HYDRO? Pumped hydro has a significant role to play in Australia achieving the goal of 17 GW of storage by 2040. As Professor Jamie Pittock from the ANU’s Research School of Electrical, Energy and Materials Engineering explained: “Pumped-storage hydropower will enable Australia to transition to a 100% renewable electricity supply by storing excess wind and solar power for dispatch on demand. “Because pumped-storage hydropower uses cheap, excess electricity and stores
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this energy for dispatch when demand peaks, it is likely to be most profitable.”
IN THE PIPELINE
There is currently very little large-scale pumped hydro in Australia, however, the nation’s major producers of traditional hydropower – Snowy Hydro and Hydro Tasmania – have announced plans to introduce significant pumped hydro to their portfolios. The approved Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro project has a capacity of 2 GW, while Hydro Tasmania has set its sights commissioning a 500-600 MW plant by 2025. Hydro Tasmania Chief Executive Steve Davy said: “Hydro Tasmania will spend up to $30 million investigating opportunities across our current assets and to assess the suitability of each of the pumped hydro sites for development. We aim to identify and build the first project so that it can be ready in the next five years." There are at least a further 19 projects under development or feasibility assessment, Pittock said. “Those projects could add about 6000 MW capacity to the National Electricity Market (NEM),” he said. “Many of the new pumped-storage projects involve redeveloping old mine sites – the 270 MW Kidston project in north Queensland is re-using two disused gold mine pits.” Meanwhile Pittock’s ANU colleague and peer, Engineering Professor Andrew Blakers, has concluded that there are at least 22,000 suitable PHES locations nationwide.
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UPHILL BATTLE
Tasmania alone offers considerable pumped-hydro potential at 14 sites, which could represent around 4800 MW of reliable, cost-effective capacity. However, as BotN initiative Project Director Chris Gwynne is well aware, there are significant challenges ahead, starting with the Bass Strait. “If we don’t have more interconnection between Tasmania and Victoria there isn’t really the opportunity to develop a pumped hydro project,” he said. In February, the Prime Minister promised to supplement the existing Basslink electricity interconnector with a second link to the mainland, and committed $56 million to seeing it become a reality. “If it’s a 1200 MW interconnector that opens up the opportunity to develop around 600 MW of pumped hydro, that’s essentially one project for us,” Gwynne said. “If we had three to four more interconnectors we could probably contribute 2500-3000 MW of pumpedhydro over a 20-year period.” More broadly, however, there is the challenge of ensuring that the NEM supports investment in storage.
HYDROPOWER: UTILITY JUMPS ON BOARD Melbourne Water is utilising one of its major waste streams – excessive hydraulic pressure – to generate power. The utility now has 14 mini hydro-electric power stations, generating some 70,000 MW hours each year. “That’s enough to power about 14,100 homes, which is equivalent to 76,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, or 29,200 cars,” said Ian Royston, Melbourne Water Senior Project Manager, Major Program Delivery. “In terms of our drinking water supply system, we now generate more in hydropower than we consume from the grid.”
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STAGE 1 In the decade to 2017, Melbourne Water installed 12 new hydro-electricity plants, starting with seven larger systems commissioned in 2008 and 2009. “We began with the sites that would give us immediate economic benefit – those that were closest to the electricity grid and generated the most power,” Royston said. The first technical challenge was the pressure transient risk. “When the mini hydro suddenly disconnects from the electricity grid you get a sudden increase in the speed of the plant, which then
creates a pressure transient – or water hammer – through the pipeline. “We did extensive modelling of our water supply system to ensure that we could manage pressure transients through innovative power station design, valving and surge mitigation.” Melbourne Water also had to negotiate electricity grid connection and complete extensive modelling to demonstrate that the plants wouldn’t affect the network.
STAGE 2 For the smaller stage two sites
commissioned in 2017, Melbourne Water took a novel building approach in order to ensure a positive financial return. “We used a containerised modular building approach, which reduced the site costs significantly. The other thing was that we didn’t just go and build one plant – we built multiple plants, which gave us economies of scale,” Royston said.
STAGE 3 Melbourne Water is now embarking on a third round of mini hydro projects and is in the final investigation stages for up to 10 more plants.
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Hydropower
“The current NEM was designed in the 1990s when we essentially had a bunch of state-based power systems that were heavily dominated by coal-fired generation,” Gwynne said. “We are heading into a very different environment where it’s most likely that there will be large amounts of wind and solar, which will become like base-load power, and then you’re going to need significant amounts of storage in the system to make it all work. There’s a lot of active discussion about whether or not the current market design can reward storage in a way that will support investment coming online when needed.” A third major challenge is gaining community support for pumped hydro. Professor Pittock said industry and government need to enhance their social licence before deploying the technology. “Consultation and careful site selection is needed to place pumpedstorage projects in places that provide maximum benefits and avoid those that have negative environmental and social concerns,” he said. Pittock suggested retrofitting old mine sites or hydropower plants, and locating pumped hydro near existing transmission lines, would be good first steps.
“The large volumes of water used for cooling thermal power stations in places like the Hunter and Latrobe valleys may become available for other uses,” he said.
WATER-ENERGY NEXUS While traditional hydropower projects can have significant social and environmental impacts, PHES would generally create less disturbance, Pittock said. “Pumped-storage hydropower recirculates water between upper and lower reservoirs that often have small surface-to-volume ratios, so they may lose relatively little water to evaporation. The conversion of some traditional hydropower systems to pumped storage should enable better environmental flow releases to restore the health of lower reaches of regulated rivers," he said. Gwynne is already starting to think of the new water management opportunities. “If you’ve got a weather event coming and you know that you’re going to be spilling, there may be opportunities to pump water into a new reservoir. Pumped hydro may well give us more flexibility in how we manage water sustainably.”
PUMPED HYDRO MAY WELL GIVE US MORE FLEXIBILITY IN HOW WE MANAGE WATER SUSTAINABLY. CHRIS GW YNNE, HYDRO TASMANIA
www.awa.asn.au
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Liquid Labs
CALCULATING THE TRUE COST OF
INTEGRATED URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES
UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE RESEARCHERS ARE LOOKING AT THE HIDDEN COSTS AND BENEFITS OF INTEGRATED URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES. By Thea Cowie
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ntegrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) initiatives are helping us to address a series of complex and interconnected issues: water scarcity, climate change, growing population and growing water demand. All around the world now, governments are looking at alternative water supply options such as rainwater, stormwater, recycled wastewater and desalination, but there is still a significant gap in understanding of the optimal mix, scale and energy use of these alternative options. These alternatives provide additional supply source and help mitigate flood and stream pollution when implemented carefully, but as University of Melbourne’s Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering Dr Meenakshi Arora has argued, these IUWM initiatives are often analysed through a fairly narrow lens. “Most of the water management decisions are based on the water balance perspective and simplistic cost-benefit analysis that largely considers the cost of investment versus savings in water bills or distribution costs. These analyses do not sufficiently account for the environmental and social sustainability. In many cases, what looks and sounds good may in fact lead to an overall low water productivity,” she said. Dr Arora used Melbourne’s response to the Millennium Drought as an example: “When the panic set during the Millennium Drought, government invested in a desalination
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plant that delivers very expensive water as well in the north-South pipeline,” she said. Though these large and expensive infrastructure provide security for the future Melbourne water supply, the decisions were not based on the systematic evaluation of all the available options due to lack of a comprehensive framework for comparative evaluation of all potential solutions. Traditional cost-benefit analyses may also overlook important benefits of IUWM solutions, Dr Arora said. “That may be water saved, recreational value, how much food we can produce with that water, what industrial products are being produced, wellbeing and health bills,” she said.
WATER PRODUCTIVITY
Dr Arora and her team aim to develop an assessment tool that water utilities can use to consider all of the hidden costs and benefits of IUWM initiatives. “We propose to use ‘water productivity’ as a tool to evaluate water service options to enable a comprehensive evaluation of alternative solutions. Water productivity is an innovative approach that looks at producing more goods and services – such as food, industrial products, income, health and wellbeing – at less social, economic and environmental cost per unit of water used,” she said.
www.awa.asn.au
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HOW IT WORKS The University of Melbourne
optimum water productivity project aims to deliver:
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A conceptual framework that encapsulates all of the potential costs and benefits of IUWM solutions.
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A suite of modelling, simulation and optimisation tools that rank IUWM solutions in terms of water productivity.
“Water productivity considers all of the values created and the costs incurred from each litre of water.” There are three main sets of attributes that lead to higher productivity for each unit of water used: demand reduction (using less water), water substitution (reusing rainwater or grey water without treatment) and water regeneration (reusing stormwater or wastewater after treatment for non-potable or potable use).
DEVELOPING A ROBUST DECISION ANALYSIS TOOL The task ahead for Dr Arora and her team begins with developing a conceptual framework that factors in all of the potential costs and benefits of various IUWM solutions. “Firstly we will identify which variables we should be considering and the second step will be how to quantify them,” she said. “The third step will be using a modelling platform which identifies all those variables and their interdependencies.” Importantly, the team aims to deliver a tool that will be adaptive to different locations and priorities. “We will use a multi-criteria decision analysis tool, which will actually consider all of the criteria and provide a score for each option. “You will then be able to rank them depending on the set of identified objectives,” she said. “For instance, the issue for one city might be that we just don’t have enough water, so the prime objective is supplying fit-for-purpose water.
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A support system for site-specific decision-making that IUWM plans to implement for optimum water productivity.
“For another city it might be that we have been able to provide enough supply but we have done a very bad job of maintaining our rivers, so the prime objective is how can we start to clean them up.”
TESTING THE TOOL
To validate the tool, the University of Melbourne researchers will work across two very different demonstration sites. “The tool is ultimately only as good as it works in the field so we are working with South East Water so that we can test some of these ideas at the Fishermans Bend precinct in Melbourne,” Dr Arora said. “We are also working very closely with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and we have a jointly-funded project to explore this idea in Kharagpur in North-East India.” Dr Arora hopes that the tool will help water utilities around the world solve the issue of water scarcity. “Basically our group is working on providing solutions to future-proof the water supply and reduce reliability on rainwater collected in reservoir as well as keep our waterways clean, so that we don’t press the panic button and choose the most sustainable solutions instead.”
Dr Meenakshi Arora is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Melbourne. She teaches Water and Waste Water Management, Groundwater Hydrology and supervises post-graduate students.
www.awa.asn.au
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T H E AU ST R A L I A N WAT E R A S S O C I AT I O N M AG A Z I N E
T E C H N I C A L PA P E R S SUMMARIES OF THE LATEST TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES AND INSIGHTS FOR WATER PROFESSIONALS.
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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS A call to action for Australian water professionals. CLIMATE RESILIENCE A master plan for water, used water and asset management. DEMAND FORECASTING Making informed planning decisions for demand forecasting. DRINKING WATER A potential indicator and risk management framework for safe water. SALT WATER INGRESS A novel methodology for assessing salt water ingress.
102 103 104 107 111 113
ASSET MANAGEMENT Embracing a waterway asset management approach. OPERATIONAL ANALYTICS How to prioritise response resources and deploy accompanying action plans. INTERNET OF THINGS How IoT can provide value for customers and utilities. LIVEABILITY Five years of case studies and learnings from Melbourne Water. WATER SENSITIVE URBAN DESIGN Restoring baseflow to desirable ecological limits using water sensitive urban design. MACHINE LEARNING Development of a machine learning model for proactive maintenance of water mains.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary sustainable development goals
The Sustainable Development Goals under climate change A CALL TO ACTION FOR AUSTRALIAN WATER PROFESSIONALS S Goldsmith, D Day
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ater professionals care deeply about the goals of sustainable development; it is part of our professional DNA. Of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG 13 ‘Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’ is a critical driver of the challenges faced by other goals. Under climate change, many SDGs become more difficult to achieve. The Ozwater’18 workshop Stretching the Sustainable Development Goals engaged a diverse group of water professionals to share their ideas about how the Australian water sector can be more proactive in driving progress on the SDGs. A large number of creative ideas were generated. Mapping these proposals to capacity building frameworks highlighted the professional and cultural domains of capacity building as the most fruitful areas for increased attention: Cultural capacity – the vital context for making change the community will support and accept. Professional capacity – individuals with the ability and who bear responsibility for stimulating and shepherding their communities through change. Climate change makes building these capacities even more vital and urgent. Under climate change, events can overtake the thinking; creating the need for new paradigms and approaches. Water professionals can contribute through their ability to visualise events and their implications lying beyond the status quo. When consequences of change are under-discussed and unrecognised, this leads to partially informed decisions. By thinking in advance of events, water professionals can help foreground the new contexts for decision-making. Leadership defines clearly the implications of climate change for the SDGs and the water sector, advances new possibilities for
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Water plays a critical role in translating climate change into disadvantage, for example, through flood, drought, habitat loss and health. dealing with them and enables informed community choices. Professional membership of the Australian Water Association (AWA) “recognises active involvement and professional standing in the water sector” (AWA 2019). The AWA embraces the diversity of professional interests in water, including members from all disciplinary backgrounds whose practise engages with any aspect of the water sector. Hearing water professionals’ views on actions required to advance the SDGs has given us the opportunity to revisit the role that water professionals play in contributing to community capacity for change. The suggestions made by participants at the Ozwater’18 workshop present a call to arms for water professionals. Climate change widens the gap to achieving the SDGs in many sectors. Water plays a
critical role in translating climate change into disadvantage, for example, through flood, drought, habitat loss,and health. The responsibility to lead progress on the SDGs through action on water lies with us, personally and collectively. This principle aligns with the objectives of the UN International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018-2028 which recognises the centrality of water to achieving the SDGs. Dr Suzy Goldsmith specialises in strategy and risk management. Darryl Day is the Managing Director of ICE WaRM (International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management). To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary climate resilience
Delivering a sustainable and climate resilient Bengaluru A MASTER PLAN FOR WATER, USED WATER AND ASSET MANAGEMENT G Bhatt, V Singh, V Honnungar, P N Ravindra
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ndia is experiencing rapid urbanisation. The urban population has gone up from 290 million in 2001 to 377 million in 2011. Due to rapid urbanisation, water demand is also increasing rapidly. The water situation in metropolitan cities is particularly exacerbating, where the people in such cities face acute water shortage. Changing climate, and its impact on temporal and spatial variability of rainfall, is a further deterrent to timely and sufficient availability of water resources. Bengaluru is a megacity of 11 million people with an area of ~800 sq km. Between 2019 and 2035, it is predicted that Bengaluru will have the third-fastest economic growth of any city in the world (Oxford Economics 2018). Bengaluru relies on a distant and depleting surface water source – River Cauvery, which is grappling with over-exploited groundwater, faces challenges from a rapidly growing population, ageing water assets, changing climate, polluted waterscape and rising costs. Working on behalf of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Jacobs developed a Strategic Water, Used Water and Asset Management Master Plan, and Vision – 2050 Document to promote sustainable and climate change resilient water and used water management, and establish a robust asset management framework. This Strategic Master Plan developed a roadmap to deliver world-class water
and used water services, and to enable sustainable growth for Bengaluru through to 2050, and help transform BWSSB as Utility of the Future (UoTF). The process involved detailed assessment of existing and potential water sources, water and used water infrastructure and financial sustainability. The topical issue of climate change impacts on Bengaluru’s water and used water systems were addressed based on climate change modelling and analysis for Cauvery River basin as well as future water flows and droughts. Further, adaptation options were developed with a time-phased implementation plan to tackle climate change impacts on flows and water infrastructure. Each of the suggested potential resource or infrastructure is suggested based on Quadruple Bottom Line (QBL) assessment, which considers technical, environmental, social and financial aspects. Some of the key solutions provided are as below: • Development of a long-term and sustainable water portfolio: o Creation of local and sustainable sources; o Creating storage across Cauvery River to harness monsoon flows; o Harnessing a new surface water source. • Identification and development of a roadmap for programs and projects to meet targets till 2050 to ensure
…adaptation options were developed with a time-phased implementation plan to tackle climate change impacts on flows and water infrastructure.
sustainable water quality and quantity, effective used water management, sustainable management of assets, public participation and customer relations. • Climate change adaptation for water infrastructure: o Ensuring BWSSB’s used water infrastructure is resilient to potential climate change and that it continues to deliver a high standard of service. • Long-term Financial Sustainability Plan and Rational Pricing. BWSSB’s blueprint for future-proofing the services it provides to Bengaluru was recognised with a Water Leaders Award at the 2018 Global Water Awards. Gaurav Bhatt is a civil engineer, currently working as a project manager in the water sector, delivering large interdisciplinary feasibility, planning and design studies. Vinod Singh is a civil engineer with more than 25 years of working experience in India, Singapore, ASEAN, Middle East and ANZ. Vivekanand Honnungar is an environmental engineer, currently working in the water sector in areas such urban water, climate change, feasibility studies and water resources. Dr Ravindra served one of the largest water utilities in India, BWSSB, for more than 30 years. He recently retired as Chief Engineer at BWSSB.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary demand forecasting
Impact of climate change on water demand MAKING INFORMED PLANNING DECISIONS FOR DEMAND FORECASTING L Uthayakumaran, F Spanninks, A Barker, A Pitman, J Evans
When running forecasts at the multi-year and decadal levels, weather inputs are substituted with long-term climate averages, since it is not possible to forecast weather at those time scales.
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ariations in weather are what influence fluctuations in water consumption the most. Therefore, it is natural to expect climate change to have an impact on water demand. The impact could be quantified by integrating the outputs of climate-projection models such as the NSW and ACT Regional Climate Model (NARCLiM), with statistical models forecasting water demand. Sydney Water uses a panel-regression model (Sydney Water Demand Forecasting Model – SWCM) that uses population, dwelling type mix and weather as inputs to forecast demand over multiple time horizons. When running forecasts at the multi-year and decadal levels, weather inputs are substituted with long-term climate averages, since it is not possible to forecast weather at those time scales. This approach works, as long as variations in weather level off in the long-term, but this assumption is questionable in light of climate change. Integrating climate change models with demand forecasting models poses two problems. Firstly, climate models typically predict change in averages, but variations in demand are mostly driven by extreme events (e.g. increasing frequency of heat waves). Secondly, climate models typically
do not provide a single projection, but an ensemble of equally likely scenarios, leaving it to the decision-maker to select the most appropriate scenario. This paper discusses how we address both these problems. We integrate the outputs of NARCLiM with SWCM via a ‘weather generator’, a mathematical model that generates Monte-Carlo simulations of multiple weather scenarios based on each NARCLiM ensemble-member (each of which corresponds to a combination of one of the four global climate models CCMA 3.1, CSIRO-MK 3.0, ECHAM5 and MIROC3.2, and one of three methodologies used to downscale global scenarios to ACT and NSW). One hundred weather scenarios are generated for each of the 12 NARCLiM projections. These weather scenarios are then used as inputs to SWCM, instead of the long-term climate averages, to produce 100 ‘demand scenarios’ each. The average of each group of 100 forecasts is taken as the demand forecast corresponding to that particular NARCLiM ensemble member. Running this process, while keeping all non-weather-related variables constant, yields the marginal impact of climate-change on demand for each NARCLiM ensemble.
T C A
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From the 12 scenarios, we propose selecting the one that suits the risk profiles of the decision it informs. Consider two examples: using demand forecasts for determining the retail price of water and, using forecast to determine investment levels in building infrastructure. In the case of the former, the cost of under-forecasting is roughly the same as over-forecasting. Therefore, it would be reasonable to use a forecast in the ‘middle’. Whereas, in the latter, the cost of error is asymmetric. In other words, the cost of under-forecasting potentially leading to supply constraints – it could be argued – is graver than the cost of over-forecasting, the consequence of which is wasted investments. Thus, in the latter case, the most appropriate forecast to use would be the ‘worst case’. Thus, using this reasoning, we estimate the marginal impact of climate change on demand most appropriate to inform infrastructure planning is 2.1% in the near-future (2020-2040) and 4.42% in the far-future (2060-2080).
Luther Uthayakumaran works with Sydney Water and his interests include using science to inform policy and planning decisions. Frank Spanninks works with Sydney Water, where his primary responsibilities include developing water demand forecasts for Sydney. Adrian Barker has undergraduate degrees in science and engineering from the University of Sydney and has worked for various organisations including the State Rail Authority. Professor Andrew Pitman is Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. Professor Jason Evans works with the Climate Change Research Centre (UNSW). To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
ty the Safe e t a in Elim row Don’t th s k is R ! at them money
The SAFER, more COST EFFECTIVE Aeration System!
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executive summary drinking water
Determining safe drinking water A POTENTIAL INDICATOR AND RISK MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR SAFE WATER T Hasan
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t is accepted that the safety and aesthetic quality of drinking water is vital and that the greatest risks to consumers of drinking water are pathogenic microorganisms. Preparing and implementing risk management systems/plans is the most effective way to assure the consistent supply of safe quality drinking water, thereby protecting public health. The usual indicator utilities use to report on drinking water quality compliance is end-point E. coli testing. However, while end-point testing is important, it has limitations in terms of indicating consistent safety of a supply. It is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;too little too lateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to
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provide continuous assurance that public health is being protected from microbial risks. Therefore, the author suggests that it would be appropriate to adopt an indicator(s) in relation to risk management systems/plans. Moreover, the discussions through this paper are useful for Australia to pave the way and contribute to an enhanced indicator on safe drinking water, which could be adopted towards measuring progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) on safely managed supplies. The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines (ADWG) provide a risk management framework to assure the
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It is ‘too little too late’ to provide continuous assurance that public health is being protected from microbial risks.
terial bac ing nt on manag terr we n ete an alia g and re Pe strrali ust elopin m the ineer ies Au dev g. Fro hnolog ning eng ning luding testin Tec missio missio ts, inc llenge Water com com projec us cha qua s and sign and Evo vir water the ble and proces s de rk in waste responsi as a proces and to wo t office en ted ter g for be ple wa nin er e has missio projec he com table . He Manag com of po plants where /or ber duct ion ies. and RS Pro num rat n log O es, filt e in sig of a s de rane AUTHGerin JamWater Techno experiencstralia, eing memb ial proces e Ag rs’ Au THE qua d in s mbran l in Full 10 yea Evo jects. for init “Me g thi over water fiel ova 16). le pro has Durin roles ste en Reman Water & multip ES T. Trinh (20 Gerin and wa erica. iety of hog g NC eric Pat nce Am nin Am var fere RE es and act on water North Con d in ts 2016 missio and the – Imp logy REFE, A., G. Jam worke ply, com on projec Asia ment dings of e Techno ent d Branch Replace he has n, sup rane atm Procee Membran focuse ter tre time sig Memb d and n D, de MBR”, rk has ycle ort on stewa g: R& His wo Scale Associatio l wa “A Rep Head Rec . sin , ica pas 06) rth sales. nce Works tion. biolog . l (20 – No fere encom hnical brie osi ting Con logies ranes, Exp eer I. Ga formance tec Opera 6 iro ’06 and memb techno Engin ies S and Per 200 from ing ion gs Env cess log pman, r (MBR) iences gs of the involv reduct Cha ceedin cto er, Pro Techno “Exper ceedin solids Biorea Plant”, Pro Zaun Water 06) Pro . ter and (20 R)” Pe nce qua ner Water water fere (MB Evo alia thogen the P. Zau reactor . “Pa with tor Con Austr g in s, G., Bio joining Ltd, (2010) l of the Opera workin or to Lander mbrane Pty lson and ng Journa been 04. Pri N. Ne a Me ineers acturi ney has ctor.” 20 Eng s and 51. manuf d at Syd Peter ry since AWA biorea 6): 44Angle R® e M. ran L., n 37( EMCO he worke d in the d indust ew, memb ociatio ns (M use 06, by a Pettigr starte oval ter Ass Sieme in 20 . Peter he foc rem ian Wa cer NSW) where dule o Austral ndsor ction Offi division, R mo He als , Wi e™. du D ’s MB facility as a Pro rane R& MCOR earch mPuls ME as Me ration res Water OR memb ent of wn filt pm n - kno rane MEMC develo desig memb on the n system l other era aeratio ted sev ple com
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To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
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internal reporting on it. This will provide more impetus and emphasis on effective implementation of the risk management system/plan, and lead to the desired outcome of providing safe quality drinking water. Further work and consultations will be required at the state and national (and global) level to adopt this potential indicator.
It is suggested that such an indicator needs to be developed to counter the limitation posed by relying on only end-point water quality testing data. A possible indicator could be: “Degree of drinking water management system/plan implementation (0-100)”. In response to managing the risks and for protection of public health, the risk management framework outlined in the ADWG has been recognised as the most effective means of ensuring consistent supply of safe quality water. If the system/plan is adequate, then measuring the degree of implementation will more accurately reflect the level of safety provided by the management system. At a local level, a water utility could consider this indicator and include
consistent supply of safe quality drinking water, and to protect public health and community wellbeing. The development of a risk management system/plan requires several key steps and a multibarrier approach. This ensures that failure of a single barrier will not overwhelm the other control processes and compromise the quality of water supplied to consumers. Consequently, it is important to ensure that a barrier failure is identified and rectified as soon as possible. Just having or developing a system/plan will not ensure water safety, effective ongoing implementation is required. The author argues that no measurable indicator exists that reports on the level of implementation of water management plans by water utilities.
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Submit your technical paper for the Water e-Journal, the Association’s online repository of water-related papers. Visit the Association’s website and look under the Publications tab or email journal@awa.asn.au for more information.
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executive summary salt water ingress
O th in a
Salt water ingress in coastal wastewater catchments
A 1 w
A NOVEL METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING SALT WATER INGRESS T Miranda, T Hill, R Lockett, M Schnelle, H Bustamante
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ydney Water’s Cronulla Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) team observed increased salinity of the plant’s final effluent above historical baseline conditions in May 2017. These salinity increases correlated with high tides observed in the catchment. The salinity increase was attributed to salt water ingress (SWI), which primarily occurs due to faults in network assets in the tidal zone. This allows salt water to enter during high tides, with severe ingress occurring at tides above two metres (king tides). This triggered a response from Sydney Water to investigate and respond to the issue. Analysis of WWTP data indicated the biggest impact occurred during the January 2018 king tide (2.24 m). The salinity increase in the Cronulla system had negative impacts on the community water recycling scheme downstream of the WWTP, with the saline effluent not suitable for irrigation. Additionally, the high volumes of salt water entering the network (upwards of 60 L/s) increased hydraulic load to the system, increasing pumping costs, reducing plant capacity, and increasing risk of wastewater overflows to the environment at sewage pumping stations (SPS). A predictive model was developed as an interim approach to provide affected stakeholders with an early-warning system. In-situ inspections, analyses of network flow, and salinity monitoring at Cronulla WWTP established that the northern portion of the system, at Kangaroo Point and Sylvania, were the most impacted by SWI. Based on the hydraulic and salinity determination, Sydney Water conducted targeted repairs and maintenance between February and May 2018, ahead of June 2018 king tides (2.11 m). Comparison of conductivity at the WWTP between the January and June
The salinity increase in the Cronulla system had negative impacts on the community water recycling scheme downstream of the WWTP... king tides demonstrated a successful repair and maintenance effort, with an overall average reduction in SWI of 39% for tides up to 2.11 m. This case study provides a successful method for targeting and reducing SWI in a wastewater catchment, which is an ubiquitous challenge for the water industry. The project also demonstrates Sydney Water’s commitment to reduce risk to the environment and community, and will strengthen the SWI strategy for Sydney Water. Tashya Miranda works in Sydney Water’s operations team, as a Water Quality Analyst.
Dr Heriberto Bustamante is a Principal Research Scientist, Treatment at Sydney Water. Matt Schnelle works in Sydney Water’s Service Planning and Asset Strategy team. Rebecca Lockett works at Sydney Water in a consulting team for potable water filtration plants. Timothy Hill joined Sydney Water in 2006 and has worked in analytical and field services for 10 years. To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
100 www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary asset management
Applied fluvial geomorphology in the 21st century EMBRACING A WATERWAY ASSET MANAGEMENT APPROACH L Smith, P Rogers
â&#x20AC;Śthere is a difference between managing assets, often independently of one another, and embracing a comprehensive and systemised asset management approach.
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n 2016 Melbourne Water embarked on a transformation of how we manage our regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s waterways and stormwater quality treatment wetlands driven by the Victorian Government mandatory requirement that: commencing in 2020-21, all public sector agencies must conduct a three-yearly self-assessment of the level of asset management maturity within their organisation and state this in their annual report. The implications of this 2016 mandate are that by 2020, Melbourne Water needs to have aligned our existing approach to managing waterways and stormwater quality treatment wetlands with the requirements of the ISO 55000 Asset Management Standards. Melbourne Water took this mandate as an opportunity to dedicate efforts to establish a waterway asset management approach. Melbourne Water has managed waterway and stormwater quality treatment wetlands for many years, but there is a difference between managing assets, often independently of one another, and embracing a comprehensive and systemised asset management approach.
This project will develop a robust framework, supported by the latest geomorphic science that will enable a strategic approach to managing the physical form of waterway assets at the reach-scale, which is required in order t o make effective decisions and realise value from our investment. This paper provides insight into the asset management approach to physical form and function being developed over the coming year. It is hoped that other organisations can benefit from the sharing of the knowledge being generated as Melbourne Water develops its waterway asset management capability and maturity. Leigh Smith is a fluvial geomorphologist and has spent the past 17 years working in waterway management in Victoria. Penny Rogers is an Environmental Engineer specialising in waterway health and ecosystem restoration.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
102 www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary operational analytics
Operational analytics: complex calculations, simple execution HOW TO PRIORITISE RESPONSE RESOURCES AND DEPLOY ACCOMPANYING ACTION PLANS P Bonk, J Klaric
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he Big Data era provides potential for a higher degree of integration between operations, response teams, planning and management. However, the current live data bottleneck caused by securing these live datasets combined with the use of ‘small data’ analysis software (spreadsheets, etc) when the stale time series data is finally accessed, stifles innovation. When the skills sets of technical and non-technical staff from all segments of the utility can access live data, water, sewerage and drainage networks will in effect be monitored by many more staff by way of stored logic, sampled and derived data feeds, templated and scalable calculations and associated alert generation. In pursuit of proactive decision-making, operational analytics allows for prioritisation of response resources and deployment of accompanying action plans. The operational analytics web-based application, Info360 by Innovyze, to be discussed in this paper, contains workspaces designed to be utilised on a daily basis include mapping, geospatiallylocated sensors and alert mechanisms, visualisation of data through charts and built-in analytics dashlets, pre-designed visuals and metrics to monitor sensor health and data quality to provide deeper insights on the operations and performance of water, sewerage and drainage networks. Informing Info360’s workspaces for network insights and subsequent action
is a data modelling application that consumes multiple categories of live data (AMR/AMI, SCADA, water quality, demand, flow, pressure, level, pump data and hydraulic model historical/ predictive runs). The application is source agnostic, designed for operational analytics to be a fundamental aspect of proactive decision-making and quicker to action when reacting to a system event. When action is necessary, operational analytics provides the new-found ability to discern where, when, why and how an operations, field and engineering team react and respond to system issues as they arise. An overview of the system benefits found thus far include: • Sensor health, including data quality, total uptime and notification of stuck sensors. • Event detection and management. • From reactive to active system operation. • Better customer service. • Simple statistics and/or pattern recognition for system anomaly detection. • Configurable calculations, or automated workflows for scalability of complex calculations. • Templated approaches and methodologies for less effort on data cleansing and increased attention to decision-making. The approach of sourcing and configuring real-time data capture, identifying KPIs for application, running an
More data and dashboards are not enough for behavior change and adoption by users in their every day practices.
analysis to create operational insights and utilising such insights for proactive system management will allow utilities, councils and supporting consulting companies to discover, address and solve the complex challenges confronting the industry. More data and dashboards are not enough for behaviour change and adoption by users in their everyday practices. The intent of this paper is to methodically demonstrate ways in which operational analytics are within every utility and council’s grasp utilising their existing skillsets, datasets, IT infrastructure and software tools. The paper will discuss a step-by-step approach for operational analytics grounded in the discussion of successful case studies. Patrick Bonk is Innovyze’s Asia Pacific team resident Sewer Hydraulics Engineer with the role of Software Solutions Lead. Jonathan Klaric received his PhD in applied mathematics from The University of Queensland, before starting at XP Solutions as a mathematician and numerical engine developer.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
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executive summary internet of things
IoT as a digital enabler of a hyper-connected water utility HOW IOT CAN PROVIDE VALUE FOR CUSTOMERS AND UTILITIES C Prackwieser, D Cash, M Wassell
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fter its successful initiation in September 2017, Sydney Waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Customer Hub has led to a big reduction in customer impact in relation to water interruptions and a significant shift to a customer-centric mindset of the maintenance staff. To further improve customer experience, the organisation is looking for innovative approaches and technologies to achieve the vision of being proactive in customer communications and predictive in asset management. Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising technology which has the potential to assist Sydney Water in reducing the
impact on customers and the environment further, delivering significant operational efficiencies and reducing WH&S risks. To explore IoTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opportunities and test its maturity, we conducted a trial project which deployed around 330 relatively inexpensive battery-powered devices to monitor smaller water supply and sewer collection assets. In case of a detected variation, a device reports the reading through a dedicated communication network and software services raise an alarm with the operator. Furthermore, the data can teach machine learning algorithms which will predict faults
The ability to capture more and higher frequency of data will drive predictive analytics and machine learning capability with the ultimate goal of delivering artificial intelligence to support operations decision-making and enable cognitive automation.
104 www.awa.asn.au
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and provide support for maintenance planning and optimised system design. The IoT pilot project explored potential applications of IoT, such as the detection of sewer blockages and overflows, monitoring of water pressure and digital metering of customer water usage. We tested a range of technologies and investigated how IoT can provide value for customers and the organisation. The ability to detect a service fault before our customers do was our primary focus for the initial trial. The project demonstrated that IoT can provide cost-effective and proactive customer outcomes. However, it should be noted that this is an immature and fast emerging technology, and careful analysis needs to be undertaken in developing standards, technology choices and decision criteria at all levels of the IoT ecosystem. Sydney Water will extend this trial and deploy up to 10,000 additional sensors
and digital meters to be able to evaluate technologies and support an informed decision on the implementation of IoT across the whole area of operation. This thorough assessment will also inform future revisions of asset standards to ensure that all newly built environments incorporate appropriate technology choices to allow us to drive improved customer outcomes and contribute to the truly smart cities of the future. The ability to capture more and higher frequency of data will drive predictive analytics and machine learning capability with the ultimate goal of delivering artificial intelligence to support operations decision-making and enable cognitive automation. IoT is one of many technologies being deployed by Sydney Water to realise their vision of being a digitally hyper-connected utility. This, along with data from drone technologies, Building Information Modelling (BIM), asset performance data
and hydraulic models will be utilised to deliver Digital Twins of assets, systems and cities that will transform the way that planners and operators of the future work in a modern utility. Christoph Prackwieser is the Project Manager of Sydney Waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Internet of Things (IoT) initiative. Darren Cash is the Manager of Sydney Waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Customer Hub, a team that focuses on minimising the customer impact of daily operations. Mike Wassell is the Head of Operational Technology Services (OTS) at Sydney Water.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
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Meet our Principal Members
Interested in upgrading your corporate membership? Find out how at
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www.awa.asn.au/membership
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executive summary liveability
Challenges have arisen, including discussions on clear policy mandate, funding and inter-organisational role clarity.
Liveability: urban water’s next horizon? FIVE YEARS OF CASE STUDIES AND LEARNINGS FROM MELBOURNE WATER H Pexton, K Nagato
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he water industry has always been at the forefront of liveability in Melbourne. In recent times, Melbourne Water has begun thinking beyond our traditional role in water, sewerage, drainage and waterway management, and started to look at the contribution we make to other factors that affect the city’s liveability. Melbourne is growing rapidly, placing pressure on public open space. The city is also experiencing the effects of climate change, including increased urban heat and heat-related deaths. As the second largest landholder in Victoria, owning 9% of public open space within Melbourne’s urban growth boundary and managing 25,000 km of
waterways, Melbourne Water has the potential to make a significant contribution by providing valued city-shaping services to the community. Building on work completed by Holmes (2013) and WSAA (2014) looking at the urban water utility’s role in liveability, Melbourne Water has made significant progress turning ideas into reality through pilot projects and programs. These programs and projects have been implemented in line with customer willingness to pay and aligned with our organisational vision and Strategic Direction of ‘Enhancing Life and Liveability’. The driver behind these initiatives has been to ensure that communities are deriving maximum
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executive summary liveability
possible value from our role as a water utility and from the assets we manage on the public’s behalf. Collaboration is key to our shared success. We have engaged and partnered with our customers, communities, planners, and all levels of government to build a stronger understanding of the role of water and our assets, such as land, in supporting the liveability of Melbourne. Case studies of pilots and programs we have initiated with our partners have explored the following service areas: • activating disused assets – for example, as active transport corridors; • urban cooling; • opening land for community use and public open space. Piloting these projects has confirmed the benefits of delivering liveability outcomes to community, while delivering our day-to-day services. We’ve demonstrated financial, asset management, customer and
organisational relationship benefits to delivering these shared outcomes. Challenges have arisen, including discussions on clear policy mandate, funding and inter-organisational role clarity. We look to the future and ask ourselves ‘What makes Melbourne liveable and how can we contribute to liveability?’. By looking at our role from this perspective, it becomes clear that the potential contribution of Melbourne Water to the liveability of Melbourne extends far beyond water – in areas such as: • providing cooler, greener, more amenable spaces; • enhancing community connection and access to nature; • creating opportunities for community recreation and enjoyment. Planning for the city has occurred largely in silos, with no single agency having responsibility (or funding) for ensuring the liveability of Melbourne.
The water sector’s focus on Melbourne as a water-sensitive city is a critical contributor to liveability. Bringing together the water, transport, energy, health and other sectors for truly collaborative urban planning will be critical to maintaining and improving the world-renowned liveability of Melbourne. Hannah Pexton is Manager Land and Collaborative Planning at Melbourne Water. Kate Nagato is Manager Innovation and Resilience at Melbourne Water, leading change in how the sector builds resilience to current and future pressures.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
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executive summary water sensitive urban design
Baseflow contribution from water sensitive urban design RESTORING BASEFLOW TO DESIRABLE ECOLOGICAL LIMITS USING WATER SENSITIVE URBAN DESIGN D Buck, B Taylor, L Fabbro, S Rockloff
Literature has acknowledged that re-establishing pre-urbanised flow conditions and recapturing natural aquatic ecosystems is impractical in many urban catchments.
U
rbanisation has altered streamflow and severely degraded our natural aquatic ecosystems. It is vital that we look beyond studies of water quality and hydrogeomorphology and into natural baseflow regimes and whether restoration is possible to within the ecological limits. This review paper examines empirical studies of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) systems which report outcomes to baseflow. It is apparent that baseflow is critical to stream health; however, it is inconclusive that current WSUD practice can systematically restore baseflow to within the natural ecological limits. Fortunately, a solution could exist by increasing infiltration in urban communities at the allotment scale. Baseflow is the minimum flow that sustains a stream in dry weather and when reduced can cause stress and irreparable damage to stream ecosystems; the probability of occurrence being related to hydrological drought. WSUD is an initiative to connect people with their local environment sustainably by incorporating accumulated stormwater in their catchment into the design of their urban communities, while also protecting urban aquatic systems from any further degradation. WSUD also has potential to provide direct environmental benefits, particularly in projects focused on treating and infiltrating stormwater into
groundwater systems. Supplementing baseflow and improving stream health are other desirable effects from these methods that need further exploration. The focus of the review was Australian research predominantly, with some overseas comparisons made where appropriate. A significant body of research on modelling and simulation of WSUD systems was excluded on the basis that impacts to baseflow from WSUD systems are complex and, in most cases, can only be measured accurately from field observations. Unpublished, unauthored, or undated work was disregarded. Journal searches included Water, Water Science and Technology, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Water e-journal, Journal of Hydrology, and Water Resources Research. Searches incorporated conferences including Ozwater and Novatech, plus Australian government and water research institute reports. Literature has acknowledged that re-establishing pre-urbanised flow conditions and recapturing natural aquatic ecosystems is impractical in many urban catchments. Restoration projects should therefore focus on achieving the lower natural ecological limits. However, a barrier exists in many urban catchments where the large majority of permeable space, suitable for improving baseflow, is within
private allotments making it inaccessible for estate-scale WSUD systems. This review also discovered there is inconclusive evidence, yet significant potential, that changes to current WSUD practices could restore baseflow to within desirable ecological limits. WSUD techniques can be additionally improved upon by using existing space more effectively in an urban community at the allotment scale. One method to achieve this is reconfiguring a percentage of the storage in rainwater tanks on these sites to increase infiltration and supplement urban groundwater systems and thus facilitate restoration of urban baseflow. Additionally, several pieces of conflicting literature are highlighted, such as reports which support and refute that urbanisation decreases baseflow. Similar conflicting reports were noted on the impacts of tree abundance on baseflow. The literature is also divided on whether rainwater tanks can improve baseflow in urban catchments. All these areas need further investigation. David Buck is a PhD candidate at CQUniversity Australia and holds a Masters degree in Water Resource Management. Benjamin Taylor is a Civil Engineer and Senior Lecturer at CQUniversity Australia. Associate Professor Larelle Fabbro is actively involved in teaching and research associated with water management at CQUniversity Australia. Dr Susan Rockloff has worked for Cooperative Research Centres, Government (Commonwealth, State, Local) and natural resource organisations.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary machine learning
Machine learning for water mains maintenance DEVELOPMENT OF A MACHINE LEARNING MODEL FOR PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE OF WATER MAINS D Weeraddana, B Liang, Z Li, Y Wang, F Chen, L Bonazzi, D Phillips, N Saxena
T
he average age of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s water infrastructure has been increasing and has begun to show its signs through water main failures. The maintenance and renewal of water mains demand high financial investments, and direct inspection of all water mains in a distribution system is extremely expensive and impractical. Therefore, a cost-effective failure-mitigation technique such as a prediction model to accurately predict the water mains failure, would reduce the negative customer impact and the cost to serve. However, prediction of the water main breaks is not an easy task due to the low failure rate and high cost of inspection, which have led to sparse historical data. We have identified that tailoring artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to model long-term pipeline failure forecasting, provides accurate insights into water main networks. This will assist water authorities to carry out proactive
pipeline maintenance in a targeted and effective manner. Data scientists at Data61 and asset management experts at Western Water commenced model development to answer the questions related to proactive water main maintenance and ultimately produced more targeted break mitigation and asset renewal programs for Western Water. Western Water is one of Victoriaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regional urban water corporations servicing 70,000 properties over 3000 square kilometres, where on average 400 water main failures occur per year. In this work, we constructed a detailed picture and understanding of the behaviour of the water pipe network by 1) discovering the underlying drivers of water main breaks, and 2) developing a machine learning system to assess and predict the failure likelihood of water main breaking using historical failure records, descriptors of pipes, and several environmental factors. The ensuing
We have identified that tailoring artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to model long-term pipeline failure forecasting, provides accurate insights into water main networks.
www.awa.asn.au
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executive summary machine learning
results open an avenue for Western Water to identify the priority of pipe renewals through a highly accurate prediction of failure likelihood, with an overlay of the consequence of failure at the individual pipe length level. Although the factors affecting pipe failures have been studied before, understanding of these factors is to a large extent incomplete due to their high complexity. Thus, comprehensive analyses were performed to identify the factors that lead to failures of water pipes. This involved exploring statistically significant correlation between water main breaks and operational factors sourced from Western Waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s internal databases as well as external datasets such as the Bureaus of Statistics and Meteorology. A long-term forecasting model was then developed for predicting which pipe assets are most likely to have a water main failure within the next 20 years, by year. Burst and fitting failures were considered separately. Furthermore, an end-to-end runnable tool was developed for the prediction of likelihood of failure of each individual pipe in next 20 years. Results demonstrate that our machine learning model can provide valuable assistance to forecast and plan water main renewals with more confidence via predictive analytics. This work highlights Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efforts in using AI and machine learning to uplift the Australian
water sector. Ultimately, we believe this work, at the intersection of machine learning and asset management, will lead to more effective and proactive infrastructure maintenance in the Australian water industry, as well as outside of Australia. Dr Dilusha Weeraddana is working as a Research Fellow at Data61-CSIRO. Dr Bin Liang is a lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr Zhidong Li is a senior lecturer at UTS. Before this, he was a senior engineer at Data61-CSIRO. Dr. Yang Wang is an associate professor at UTS as well as a visiting principal researcher of Data61-CSIRO. Dr Fang Chen is a prominent leader in AI/data science with industrial recognition.
A long-term forecasting model was then developed for predicting which pipe assets are most likely to have a water main failure within the next 20 years, by year.
Livia Bonazzi is General Manager Strategy at Western Water. Dean Phillips is a chemical engineer working in trade waste and asset management. Nitin Saxena is a former Manager Strategic Asset Management at Western Water.
To read the full article, visit the Water e-Journal at bit.ly/water_ejournal
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T H E A U S T R A L I A N WAT E R A S S O C I AT I O N M A G A Z I N E
Current Reach industry decision makers
THE AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION MAGAZINE April 2019
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T H E AU ST R A L I A N WAT E R A S S O C I AT I O N M AG A Z I N E
A S S O C I AT I O N E V E N T S SHARING EXPERTISE ACROSS THE WATER INDUSTRY
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EVENTS CALENDAR Plan your continuous learning with the latest listing of the Association’s events calendar. NSW STATE CONFERENCE This year’s NSW State Conference took a closer look at how the sector can strengthen communities. WA INDUSTRY BREAKFAST The WA Industry Breakfast brought the state’s leaders together to discuss sustainability. OZWATER’19 Delegates made the most of an impressive speaker line up and caught up with peers.
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ACT WATER LEADERS DINNER Water professionals from the nation’s capital enjoyed an evening off to share and reflect. SA SYMPOSIUM This year’s SA Symposium highlighted technology and innovation for a stronger water sector. TAS CONFERENCE Tasmania’s Where the Waters Meet Conference brought together water professionals from across the state. VIC YWP BALL Victoria’s Young Water Professionals enjoyed another evening of networking and industry celebration.
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Association Events
EVENT CALENDAR OCTO B ER
16 17
WA:SUNDOWNER SA: WORKSHOP: THE ROLE OF WATER IN GREENING ADELAIDE VIC: TECHNICAL EVENT: OUR WATER LIFE
17-18 October NT Water in the Bush Conference – 30 Year Celebration
The NT’s premier annual water conference will be held on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 October 2019 at the Darwin Convention Centre.
21-27 22
NATIONAL WATER WEEK NSW NEWCASTLE WATER INDUSTRY NETWORKING NIGHT
25 October WA Water Awards Dinner
The WA Water Awards Dinner will take place on Friday 25 October 2019 to recognise the outstanding achievements and innovations in the State’s water industry.
26
QLD YWP AMAZING RACE
30 October INT Cambodian Water Conference & Exhibition
Hosted by the Cambodian Water Association, delegates are offered the opportunity to meet with key decision makers across the Cambodian public and private sector.
31
QLD WOMEN OF WATER NETWORKING EVENING
31 October NSW Legends of Water Dinner
The NSW AWA branch is once again celebrating the achievements of leaders of the NSW water industry.
N OV EM B ER
4-8
INT VIETWATER’19
8 November SA Gala Dinner & Awards Night
The 2019 SA Gala Dinner & Awards Night will take place on Friday 8 November to celebrate the sector’s achievements.
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VIC YWP SEMINAR: BEING A CHANGEMAKER
19 November ANZBP WA Roadshow & Site Tour
The ANZBP goes on tour again, this time in Perth for a morning of biosolids-related talks followed by lunch and an afternoon site tour.
20 20-21 21
WA END OF YEAR SOCIAL EVENT QLD QWATER’19 CONFERENCE SA SUNDOWNER
21 November TAS Galah Dinner & Awards Night
The 2019 AWA Tasmania annual Galah Dinner and Awards will be held at the Henry Jones Art Hotel, Hobart.
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NSW WATER AWARDS ENTRIES CLOSE
SAVE THE DATE
Many of the events hosted by the Australian Water Association offer early-bird discounts for members! Make the most of your membership by saving the date ahead of time. For more information about upcoming events and ticket pricing, visit awa.asn.au/awa_ mbrr/events
FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER, VISIT BIT.LY/AWAEVENTS 118 www.awa.asn.au
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THE AUSTRALIAN WATER ASSOCIATION’S EVENTS ARE THE BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR MEMBERS TO SHARE INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE, CONNECT WITH EACH OTHER AND INSPIRE POSITIVE CHANGE.
DECEM B ER
4
SA YWP EVENT QLD TECHNICAL EVENT
5 December VIC Water Awards Lunch
Winners of Victorian Water Awards will automatically be entered into the equivalent National Australian Water Awards category, which will be presented at Ozwater’20 in Adelaide.
16
NAT AUSTRALIAN STOCKHOLM JUNIOR WATER PRIZE ENTRIES CLOSE
JA N UA RY
15 31
WA SUNDOWNER
28
5 11
WA SUNDOWNER SA SUNDOWNER VIC YWP REGIONAL CONFERENCE
18 19 25
WA SUNDOWNER SA SUNDOWNER VIC TECHNICAL EVENT: BUILDING BIG THINGS VIC INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY EVENT (IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MELBOURNE WATER)
A PR I L
8 15 16
SA TECHNICAL EVENT QLD WOMEN OF WATER NETWORKING EVENING
SA MINISTERIAL BRIEFING QLD TECHNICAL EVENT
The Australian Water Association and International Water Association Young Water Professionals Conference will bring together future leaders around a central theme: ‘What’s your water story?’.
QLD TECHNICAL EVENT VIC MINISTERIAL EVENT
VIC MENTORING PROGRAM BREAKFAST LAUNCH
12-13 March AWA/IWA Australia & New Zealand YWP Conference
VIC SOCIAL EVENT BAREFOOT BOWLS
FEB R UA RY
12 13 19 20 21-22 26 27
MARCH
QLD TECHNICAL EVENT WA SUNDOWNER SA SUNDOWNER VIC YWP SEMINAR
M AY
5-7
NAT OZWATER’20, ADELAIDE
NSW HEADS OF WATER FORUM, GALA DINNER AND AWARDS. NAT WATER INDUSTRY SAFETY EXCELLENCE AWARD ENTRIES CLOSE
FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER, VISIT BIT.LY/AWAEVENTS www.awa.asn.au 119
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Out and about INDUSTRY BREAKFAST | NSW
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he NSW Branch was pleased to welcome the Hon. Melinda Pavey MP, Minister for Water, Property and Housing to the Industry Breakfast where she shared some insights on moving to a coordinated infrastructure delivery model.
Brendan Guiney, Grant Leslie, Katherine Marshall and Annette Davison
The Hon Melinda Pavey MP
Nanda Altavilla, Jim Bentley and Sam Sangster
Clarissa Phillips and Paul Freeman
STATE CONFERENCE | NSW
H
eld in Orange from 8-9 August, this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NSW State Conference delved deep into how the sector can strengthen communities with the help of collaboration and technology.
Keynote Speaker Jillian Kilby
L-R: Lucy Parsons (Atom Consulting), Marion Derochet (AECOM), Katie Bell (Singleton Council), Emily Ryan (Sydney Water), Jessica Vorreiter (AECOM) and Natalie Crawford (Atom Consulting)
L-R: Tafazzul Shamsi (Steel Mains), Arun Gautum (Armidale Regional Council), Tasneem Kanpurwala (Macquarie University) and Brendan Guiney (Water Directorate)
AWA NSW President Paul Freeman
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NORTH WEST REGION STUDY TOUR | WA
Tour delegates at Harding Dam
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Rachel Evans
ttracting Water Professionals from across Australia, the AWA WA Branch partnered with Engineers Australia, ANZ, KAW Engineering and Engenium to run a tour to the north west regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s water and industrial facilities.
AWA staff and sponsors at the post-tour networking dinner
Attendees at the networking dinner
Peter Long
WATER INDUSTRY BREAKFAST | WA
T
he WA Branch welcomed the Hon Dave Kelly, MLA as a keynote speaker at the annual industry breakfast. The Department of Water and Environmental Regulationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mike Rowe facilitated a panel discussion on managing water in WA; is our approach sustainable?
Jason Ricketts (Herbert Smith Freehills)
The Hon Dave Kelly, MLA Susan Worley (Department of Water and Environmental Regulation)
Rachel Evans (WA Branch President), presenting Don Crawford (WA Branch Committee member) with the Don Montgomery Award 2019
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Out and about OZWATER’19 | NAT
O Alexandra Keegan, Kelly Newton, Claire Kolokas, Maree Shepherd and Katherine Reid (SA Water) at Happy Hour
ne of the biggest water events in the world, Australian Water Association’s Ozwater’19 dished up international perspective from international thought leaders, including economist Jeffrey Sachs, and offered an exhibition hall featuring all the latest in water technology.
Francois Gouws and Carmel Krogh
The team from Melbourne Water, Principal Sponsors at Ozwater’19
T
he Ozwater’19 trade exhibition offered delegates the latest technology, including demonstrations at Wood Theatre. The delegate lounges were a hive of social activity as water professionals from across the sector and country mingled.
Tony Wong (CRC for Water Sensitive Cities)
Visitors at the trade exhibition
Orange Sky
The Association’s Events and Marketing team
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Welcome Garden Party entertainment
Mina Guli (Thirst)
Niki Robinson and Rod Naylor (GHD)
2019 Australian Water Award Winners with Christina Tonkin (ANZ) and Francois Gouws (Immediate Past President)
Young Water Professional Program attendees
Ciara Sterling (Thriving Communities Partnerships)
Jason B King (Manager Aboriginal Engagement, DELWP)
www.awa.asn.au 123
WaterAid / Tom Greenwood
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2/10/19 5:36 pm
Out and about
WaterAid / Tom Greenwood
57TH ANNUAL DINNER | VIC
T
Lindsey Brown (Immediate Past President of the VIC Branch) at the 57th Annual Dinner
Chris Plunkett, Alex Redmond, Tom Mollenkopf, Peta Maddy, Matt Hardy, Amy Syvrud, Emma Dovers, Kate Maddy, Nick Clarke and Elisa Hunter
he Victorian Branch’s 57th annual dinner celebrated Victoria’s innovative industry, where guests were inspired by a panel of female leaders in the water space including Karen Milward, Jo Plummer, Leanne Hill and Alysha Edmonds.
Peter Robinson, Jonathan McKeown, Kellie King, Karen Milward, Michael Wandmaker, Pat McCafferty, Phil Johnson, Jeff Rigby, Leanne Hill, Andrew Chapman, Allen Gale, Peter Morrison
Kate Dowsley, Farshad Ibrahimi, Lydia Wong, Damien Sharland, Luke van Rheenen Peter Brunt, andSam Joe Barnes El Zein Kate Dowsley, Farshad Ibrahimi, Lydia Wong, Damien Sharland, Peter Brunt and Sam Barnes
Front: Pat Tunnah, James Cass, Marina Maxwell, Meagan Salter, Damon Moloney Back: Simon Engelsen, Allan Murray, Matthew Willox
Rosie Wheen and Pat McCafferty
Andrew Chapman, Amy Gason, Amanda Hazell, Alice Greco, Amy Syvrud, Georgina Catto-Smit, Meredith Gibbs, Sam Skinner and David Kirby www.awa.asn.au 125
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Out and about
WATER LEADERS DINNER | ACT
Ray Hezkial (Icon Water), Nicole Vonarx (Icon Water) and Nic Morgan (MDBA)
Klaus Joehnk (CSIRO), and Dan Spackman (ACT Branch President)
Ralph Ogden (ACT Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate), Jonathan McKeown (AWA) and Matt Kendall (ACT Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate)
Dave Narayan (Endress & Hauser Australia), Joel Nicholson (ALS Water), Michael Donaldson (Auspress), Zirgham Afridi (SMEC), Gowri Pincombe (SMEC), Rose McKenna (SMEC) and Sarah Board (SMEC)
Portia Condell (Icon Water) and Adrian Blinman (TRILITY)
Peter O’Connor (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and Anthony Slatyer (Water Policy Group)
Jonathan McKeown (AWA), Andrew Terracini (Bureau of Meteorology) and Janice Green (Bureau of Meteorology)
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ustralia’s garden capital enjoyed the beginning of spring by celebrating the ACT’s Australian Water Awards finalists, enjoying the opportunity to share and connect with the broader water sector.
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Out and about SYMPOSIUM | SA
Dr Bernadette Eckerman (SA Water), Ben Fink (RAA), Emma Cole (SA Power Networks) and Myles Clarke (RAAF)
David Trebilcock, Stormwater Management Authority, Hannah Ellyard, Tom Carrangis and Tumi Bjornsson (Department of Environment and Water)
Molly Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Callaghan, Vaibhav Sankey and John Skirrow (WSP)
Anna Jackson and Elizabeth Russo (SA Water)
Dr Richard Harvey MP,(Member for Newland) and Kerry Rowlands (SA Water) Peter Seltsikas and Nicola Murphy (SA Water)
T
he one-of-a-kind SA Symposium brought together exciting speakers from artificial intelligence, innovation, entrepreneurship and more, sharing innovative solutions applicable to the water sector. Daniel Sullivan (Iota Services and AWA Board member)
Amir Vahdani (Steel Mains) and Catrin Moller (SA Water)
Nicole Hughes and Martin Harris (TRILITY)
Sam Webb, Mitchell Horwood, (KBR) and Max Gray (TRILITY) www.awa.asn.au 127
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Out and about WHERE THE WATERS MEET CONFERENCE | TAS
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ith two thought-provoking keynotes, over 30 speakers throughout the day, and 22 exhibitors there was something for everyone at Tasmaniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual conference. The conference was also the first time trialling the AWAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new event app.
Dan Sullivan
Dr Jess Melbourne-Thomas
Matthew Robertson and Stephen Westgate (TasWater)
Ted Gardner (President of the Tasmanian Branch) Lance Stapleton (TasWater)
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Jamie Lawrence (Indicium Dynamics) Ros Cardinal and Lucy Aird
YWP BALL | VIC
T
he VIC YWP Ball is the night of nights for our Victorian young water professionals. It was a chance to relax, mingle and dance the night away.
Ella Frawley
Robbie Frawley (YWP Chair 2018/19), Lindsey Brown, Jenna Beckett, Simon Roberts and Nick Stetter
Back: Chris Edwards, Josiah Moody, Will Darling, Jen Sweatman, Luke Van Rheenen, Andrew Dodson, Lizzie Scott, Vince Milidoni, Elaine Kerins, Lisa Jacob Front: Jerry Jiang, Chris Dafter, Warren Beere and Andre Dana
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Ziad Berjaoui, James Johnson, Lauren Wade, Sam Morris, Ali Rahimi, Mariah Vasiliadis, Rohit Deshpande, Jenny Lao and Karen Pei Front: Peter Johnson
2/10/19 5:39 pm
The Last Drop
RAY HEZKIAL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT ICON WATER, RAY HEZKIAL HAS BEEN WORKING ON THE FRONT LINE OF WATER FOR QUITE SOME TIME. HERE, HEZKIAL SHARES HIS AIMS FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP.
I STILL CATEGORISE MYSELF AS a Civil Engineer by trade. I worked in design for short periods of time, but it didn’t take me long to figure out I prefer being much closer to the action. I moved on from design into a range of roles, predominantly in civil construction and operational management, in both the private and public sectors over the last 20 or so years. While I fell into the water sector almost by accident, I haven’t looked back. I am drawn to the sector as it satisfies my love of engineering. The water industry attracts a lot of amazingly talented and generous people, which is also very inspiring. But above all that, the best thing about working in water is that I know I’m contributing to our community in a really practical and tangible way. This is something that is really important to me; I like being able to deliver something real and make a meaningful contribution. Icon Water’s current business strategy has three main objectives. The first is to build a safe, innovative and inclusive workplace. The second is to deliver sustainable value for our community and shareholders. The third is to enhance the customer experience. In summary, we’re seeking to be a genuine partner with the community, while looking after both our business and our people. This means being more visible as a utility, to demonstrate to our community the value we bring and, as an organisation, being as accountable as we can possibly be. We are lucky here in Canberra. The attitude of the region is very progressive when it comes to environmental issues.
We are lucky in Canberra. The attitude of the region is very progressive when it comes to environmental issues. Icon Water is very much attuned to this and we have a number of initiatives focused on environmental sustainability... Icon Water is very much attuned to this and we have a number of initiatives focussed on environmental sustainability such as our ‘Refill Canberra’ campaign, which is being rolled out in conjunction with ACT Health. Cafés sign up and agree to feature a ‘Refill Canberra’ sticker on their front window. The sticker tells Canberrans that, if you’re walking past and you’ve got a reusable water bottle, you are welcome to walk in and have your bottle filled up with chilled tap water for free. Another part of the campaign involves providing drinking-water carafes to cafés. The carafes are branded Icon Water and were designed with input from local business owners so that they are practical to use in a busy café. We think it’s a great way to promote our business as well as the use of tap water. We launched the program because we feel we have a responsibility to
remind our community that tap water really is the best option and is great for our planet by reducing landfill from plastic bottles. In recent years, as an industry I think we’ve lost some ground to plastic bottled water, largely because of convenience. So our Refill Canberra campaign is one small way of reminding people that we actually have a superior product and it can be just as convenient, without harming the environment. As far as career advice, I’d simply say it’s a good idea to be open to new experiences and challenges, especially if they take you out of your comfort zone. If you can develop your skills and collect these learning experiences, leadership roles will come to you. Through the course of my career, I’ve been given opportunities to do some very interesting work, which has also provided me with development and leadership opportunities. For water professionals that are interested in attaining leadership roles in future, I think it’s important to remember that there are many different styles of leadership; there is no one formula. Leaders need to make sure they’re being true to themselves and being authentic in who they are. I haven’t found there’s any real value in trying to emulate someone else. Sure, you can take note of what does and doesn’t work, but it’s important to be yourself and, to a very large extent, it’s about recognising the importance of your people.
Ray Hezkial is the Chief Executive Officer at Icon Water.
130 www.awa.asn.au
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