Funding for Living Ballarat

Friday, 03 June 2011

Ballarat is destined to become a world leader in integrated water cycle management with todays announcment of $1 million to begin the first steps of Living Ballarat – a new plan to transform the city through integrated water cycle management.

This funding will be delivered over the next two years and will drive the development of a city-wide integrated water cycle management framework to make better use of the city's water resource and investigate alternative water supply options to address the dual challenges of population growth and climate change.

It is estimated that each year more than nine billion litres of water, surplus to the environment's needs, runs off Ballarat's roofs and water resistant surfaces, equaling the city's total consumptive demand. The framework will set out a plan to harvest more of this water to cater for the city's growing population.

The traditional model of delivering water services is outdated and has not changed since Victoria was first settled. Instead of piping water from external catchments, the Government is focused on increasing the use of stormwater harvesting, recycling and reuse for non-potable purposes. This will make the best use of water Ballarat already has, reduce reliance on water from agricultural catchments and make the city more self-sustaining.

The Victorian Government has established the Living Victoria Ministerial Advisory Council which is investigating the uptake of alternative water. The funding is in addition to $50 million set aside over the next four years to create the Living Victoria fund to encourage community groups and neighbourhoods to take up projects which fit with the Living Victoria framework.