Water

From water-sensitive facilities and urban design, to using smart metering to optimise irrigation efficiency across our parks and verges, the City works to improve water-use efficiency and protect surface and groundwater reserves to support healthy ecosystems and future population and economic growth.  

The City is working to become a Water Sensitive City, through the delivery of the Environmental Sustainability Strategy and the Waterwise Council Action Plan.  Our progress towards becoming a Water Sensitive City was recently benchmarked by the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities.

This means the City’s performance is rated against 34 goals, including water literacy in the community, adaptive water infrastructure, and sustainable water use. The outcomes are used to develop the City’s Waterwise Council Action Plan, which require us to adapt to changing water availability so we can create liveable, resilient and sustainable communities.

Being water sensitive means showing a commitment to sustainable water use and improved water quality; using Water Sensitive Urban Design and helping educate the community about the value of water

Waterwise Council

The City is an endorsed Waterwise Council, with the Water Corporation's Waterwise Council Program and has achieved re-endorsement since 2017. This is an outstanding achievement in recognition of excellent water efficiency undertaken by the City, including: 

• Use of treated effluent wastewater for irrigation in Karratha, Dampier, and Wickham
• Use of treated effluent wastewater from the Airport for irrigation and for toilet facilities
• Use of pool filter backflush from the Leisureplex for irrigation 
• Improvements to irrigation practices

We continue to improve our practices through our Environmental Sustainability Strategy, our Water Management Strategy and our Waterwise Council Action Plan to build a waterwise community and progress towards becoming a water sensitive city.

Greywater reuse

Greywater systems are one of the best opportunities to reuse water, ensure the conservation of ground and surface water and save money.  Installation of greywater systems for residential dwellings, multi-dwellings and commercial premises require approval. To encourage the uptake of greywater systems in residential dwellings, the City has waived all applications fees. To learn more about reusing greywater, refer to Wastewater Disposal and Reuse.