WaterWays: OASIS greywater recycling complements ACT Government’s Water Sensitive Urban Design General Code
OASIS greywater recycling system
Waterways is part of the ACT Government’s broader strategy of responsible water resource management to ensure the future sustainability of the community.
The Code released early 2008 incorporates the principles of water sensitive urban design (WSUD), which aims to integrate the management of the total water cycle into the urban development process.
It uses regulatory pressure to change developers and architects specifications to improve management of water resources.
Nubian Water Systems’ OASIS greywater recycling system offers a water savings solution to assist achieving regulatory compliance.
This code applies to:
- Development of new residential neighbourhoods and estates
- Re-development or in-fill development within the existing built environment
- Institutional, commercial and industrial developments
This code provides mandatory targets for mains water use reduction and for stormwater quality and quantity management. These targets must be met for all new developments and redevelopments.
The code describes a broad range of measures that can be utilised to achieve these targets and identify a number of assessment tools that can be used to demonstrate that the targets are being met.
They also provide a range of acceptable solutions to assist with meeting the targets on less complex developments.
Development applications and building approvals are required to be submitted for new developments. The various assessment codes in the Territory Plan provide the rules criteria that must be met in relation to WSUD and demonstrate that the relevant targets will be achieved.
Put simply, developers are now obliged to incorporate water savings equipment and designs that meet quantifiable savings against benchmarks of 2003 usage, in order to gain approval for their developments.
Options for implementation of actions and measures include:
Mains water use reduction
- Water efficient irrigation systems for playing fields and open space
- Use of stormwater to replace mains water for irrigation
- Water efficient landscaping, both on public open space and within leases
- Rainwater tanks for garden watering and internal uses, such as toilet flushing
- Use of recycled greywater for irrigation and toilet flushing on individual dwellings
- Wastewater treatment and reticulation to commercial or industrial users who do not require water of a mains water standard
Stormwater management
- Wetlands and ponds
- Retarding basins integrated into public open space
- Extended detention in major dry basins or in major wetlands, ponds or lakes
- Filter strips, swales and bio-swales in lieu of piped drainage systems
- Downpipes and impervious surfaces not directly connected to the stormwater system; direct runoff across lawns and gardens
- Minimising impervious surfaces
- Installing on-site detention storage, particularly in multi-dwelling sites (which may be increased in size to allow for water harvesting)
- Creating extended detention volume in ornamental ponds or landscaped depressions
- Direct connection of downpipes to a separate collection system to discharge to ornamental ponds to maintain water quality
Wastewater reuse
- Use of large-scale treated sewage effluent schemes
- Use of domestic greywater, treated or untreated
OASIS greywater treatment systems from Nubian Water Systems are engineered solutions offering high quality recycled water with strong risk management technology.
Developers of townhouses, apartments, community centres and office blocks are in discussion with Nubian Water Systems to achieve regulatory targets for water savings, using recycled grey water.
20-Jun-2008