By Charlene Gatt
VICTORIA University students are swimming in the rain … water.
A 25-metre swimming pool
at the university’s Footscray
Park Campus is now filled with treated rainwater, saving two million litres of drinking water a year.
The $300,000 system, which is partly funded by City West Water, is one of a number of initiatives under VU’s Environment Management Plan to reduce waste, conserve energy and save resources.
The pool water is a combination of filtered rainwater and treated backwash water, while VU’s new pool-filling system uses two underground and three above-ground water tanks that can store 155,000 litres of harvested rainwater.
Before the rainwater is pumped into the pool’s balance tank, it undergoes filtration
and UV treatment to ensure it meets health and quality requirements.
The treated rainwater is also used for flushing toilets in the Aquatic and Fitness Centre, further reducing reliance on drinking water supplies.
Meanwhile, about 60,000 litres of backwash water used
to top up the pool also under-
goes filtration and treatment through reverse osmosis, with waste concentrate running into a drain.
Environment manager Rachael Keefe said the pool was identified as one of the campus’s biggest water users, prompting the university to look at ways of reducing its reliance on
drinking water.
Ms Keefe told Star the program had been in the pipeline for the past two years, and has been operating since July.
“There was added value in using this system as a showcase for water conservation since it provides the university with a live-in demonstration of new technology,” she said.
The VU Aquatic Centre is used by hundreds of students, staff and school and community groups each week, last week playing host to the under-16 girls National Water Polo Championships.
