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Assignment 1 Water System

The water system in Melbourne, Australia involves reservoirs that store rainwater collected from catchment areas covering over 156700 hectares. Water is treated at filtration plants to kill germs and add fluoride before being distributed through pipelines to homes and businesses. There are three water corporations that develop strategies for their regions to provide clean drinking water. The sewerage system collects waste water from toilets, sinks, and laundries and treats it at two main plants and smaller local plants before releasing it back into the natural water cycle or for agricultural use.

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51 views3 pages

Assignment 1 Water System

The water system in Melbourne, Australia involves reservoirs that store rainwater collected from catchment areas covering over 156700 hectares. Water is treated at filtration plants to kill germs and add fluoride before being distributed through pipelines to homes and businesses. There are three water corporations that develop strategies for their regions to provide clean drinking water. The sewerage system collects waste water from toilets, sinks, and laundries and treats it at two main plants and smaller local plants before releasing it back into the natural water cycle or for agricultural use.

Uploaded by

MohammedSirajUddin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Water system

The natural water cycle keeps the water sustainable on this planet. In this natural cycle water
evaporates from the surface of the earth due to heat of sun and then water turns into gas or water
vapors which form clouds until it again released to the earth in the form of rain. This cycle is a never-
ending process. Precipitation, condensation, transpiration and evaporation are all the process which
help to keep this water cycle running.

Figure 1 the water cycle processes


The first settlers in Melbourne were European who came here in 1803. At that time, they used water
from local creeks and then as the population expanded the infrastructure of water system was built. In
1853 the board of commissionaires of sewers and water supply was formed. In 1857 the first reservoir
(yan yean reservoir) was completed and after that many reservoirs and pipelines and tunnels were
made to create a reliable water supply system for this city. Meanwhile the quality and purity of water
was also considered and many measures were taken like mixing of chlorine and fluoride in the water.
Now Melbourne city is provided by clean drinkable water using 10 reservoirs. The rain falls in several
catchment areas (156700 hectares as whole) which runs into one of these reservoirs to store water. The
water then sits in reservoirs for 5 years and during this time water can be filtered naturally.

Figure 2 catchments for water around Melbourne

Melbourne has 2 major treatment plants and 12 small treatment plants where chlorine is added to
water to kill all the germs and then fluoride is added to water for healthy and strong teeth. Water from
reservoir is pumped to these filtration plants. Water is treated there and meet up the standards set up
by department of health and human services and then pumped to main pipelines connected to homes
and businesses where fresh and drinkable water comes out of taps.
There are three Melbourne’s metropolitan retail water corporations. City West Water, South East Water
and Yarra Valley Water. They developed urban water strategies for their specified regions as required by
the statement of obligations.

The sewerage system of Melbourne sewage all the waste water leaving kitchens, laundries, bathrooms
and toilets. It is then categorized in two different wastes. First is blackwater that comes out of toilets
and the second one is greywater that is from sinks, laundries etc. To treat all this waste there are two
main sewer plants made in the city, Eastern Treatment Plant and Western Treatment Plant. There are
several small treatment plants filter water around the Melbourne. This treated water is then further
used for market gardens or released back into the natural water cycle. These filtration systems helps in
keeping environment clean and water could be used again where it is safe to do so, this all is to save
usable water.

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