2006/07 in review

Melbourne Water manages Melbourne’s water resources to help create one of the best urban environments in the world for future generations to enjoy. In working toward this goal, we spent $588.3 million during the year to manage these resources and invested $226.7 million in capital works. We play a major role in the total water cycle and this year our 645 employees achieved the following:

Water collection and catchment management

We harvest high quality water from uninhabited catchments and store water in 10 major water storage reservoirs, often for years at a time, to help purification. This year we spent $3 million to protect our catchments from bushfire due to the prolonged fire season.

Maintaining a high quality water supply

We manage 1018 kilometres of water mains, 19 water pumping stations and 50 water treatment plants, and supply water to the three metropolitan retail water businesses to deliver to customers. The volume of water stored at 30 June 2007 was 544,425 million litres, 17% less than last year, and 411,747 million litres of water was delivered to the retail water businesses. This was 32,618 million litres less than last year due to the ongoing drought.

Managing sewage treatment

We manage two major sewage treatment plants, 10 sewage transfer pumping stations and 399 kilometres of sewers, and treat sewage and industrial waste collected by the metropolitan retail water businesses from homes and businesses. This year, 272,881 million litres of sewage was treated at the Eastern and Western treatment plants – nine per cent less than last year.

Recycling for a greener future

We supply recycled water for agricultural, horticultural and other businesses and to irrigate open spaces such as golf courses. This year, we recycled 61,062 million litres of recycled water from our sewage treatment plants, exceeding the Victorian Government’s 20% water recycling target, and delivered 10,946 million litres of recycled water to the Werribee Irrigation District.

Treating stormwater pollution

We build wetlands and other water sensitive features to treat or reduce stormwater pollution – litter, engine oil and other urban runoff – before it washes into drains, and rivers, creeks and bays. We also manage 1431 kilometres of underground drains in the Port Phillip and Westernport region. During the year, we worked with local councils to improve stormwater management, funding six projects at a cost of $679,000, with 16 councils developing proposals for a further 34 projects.

Protecting and improving rivers and creeks

We protect and improve 8400 kilometres of rivers and creeks by managing river diversions, stabilising beds and banks, preventing flooding, fencing off stream frontages, removing willows and other weeds, planting native species and releasing water from reservoirs to ensure environmental flows. This year:

23 kilometres of waterways were subject to streamside revegetation
332 kilometres of waterways were subject to streamside weed control
$38 million was spent on 210 projects to provide improved waterways, water quality and drainage infrastructure to service urban growth
$2.16 million was allocated to nearly 700 projects through various river health incentive programs to improve the condition of 117 kilometres of waterways and to plant 324,000 indigenous species.

Protecting our bays and oceans

We protect bays and oceans by building wetlands to reduce stormwater pollution, improving the quality of effluent discharged, and reducing the quantity of effluent through water conservation and recycling programs. This year three wetlands were completed, removing 54.5 tonnes of nitrogen.

Sustainability Report 2006/07