Join host Jo Taranto as she interviews Brendan Moore, Co-Founder of Pride in Water and Donald Hughan and Llewellyn Prain of WaterAble. 

Pride in Water aims to create safer work place cultures for LGBTIQ+ staff, connecting them allies within the water industry to provide support, mentoring and guidance for LGBTIQ+ staff.

WaterAble are a network of people with disability and their allies in the Victorian water industry to improve inclusion and access for employees and customers with disability, raise awareness about the rights of people with a disability and promote disability pride.

WaterAble supports people with disability to progress their career and share good ideas and practices across the industry to support the employment of people with disability to advocate for all members.

Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by Schneider Electric.

Join host Jo Taranto as she interviews Brendan Moore, Co-Founder of Pride in Water and Donald Hughan and Llewellyn Prain of WaterAble.  <a href="https://www.prideinwater.com.au/">Pride in Water</a> aims to create safer work place cultures for LGBTIQ+ staff, connecting them allies within the water industry to provide support, mentoring and guidance for LGBTIQ+ staff.
<a href="https://waterable.com.au/">WaterAble</a> are a network of people with disability and their allies in the Victorian water industry to improve inclusion and access for employees and customers with disability, raise awareness about the rights of people with a disability and promote disability pride.
WaterAble supports people with disability to progress their career and share good ideas and practices across the industry to support the employment of people with disability to advocate for all members.
Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by <a href="https://www.se.com/ww/en/">Schneider Electric</a>.

The Australian Water Association's Podcast Series brings you water industry information, projects and research from professionals working in Australia and abroad. Recorded during Ozwater'23, Jo Taranto interviews key water professionals on their career, achievements, promising research and more.

Proudly sponsored by Schneider Electric

The Australian Water Association's Podcast Series brings you water industry information, projects and research from professionals working in Australia and abroad. Recorded during Ozwater'23, Jo Taranto interviews key water professionals on their career, achievements, promising research and more.
Proudly sponsored by <a href="https://www.se.com/ww/en/">Schneider Electric</a>

Australian Water Association Podcast - United by Water

The Australian Water Association's Podcast Series brings you water industry information, projects and research from professionals working in Australia and abroad.

Australian Water Association Podcast

Pride in Water and WaterAble discuss diversity, inclusion and advocacy in the Water sector

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with David Manuel (Strategic Alliances Manager at TeamViewer) to augmented reality in the water industry.

David Manuel is a self-described evangelist for transformative technologies and has implemented extended reality solutions as part of his role at TeamViewer. He joins podcast host Jo Taranto to implore other water utilities and professionals to get more involved in the Augmented Reality (AR) space.



David, you’re a self-described evangelist for transformative technologies, I haven't heard that term before, can you tell me what you're passionate about and how you got involved in this space?

It’s all in the name! Transformative technologies help transform business operations and the lives of people so being an evangelist means I'm someone who likes to get involved in emerging technologies which haven't been established in the market yet. I’m out there proclaiming the message of the new technology. That is my passion.



Have you got a software background yourself?

I started off in the IT industry as a project engineer in software but very quickly I realised that I li8ke explaining technology to other people more and that’s how I slowly got into sales and now I manage alliance for TeamViewer.



Your role is about building partnerships between different platforms or software and one of those is this relationship between TeamViewer and SAP, can you tell me how it came about?

From a TeamViewer perspective, we like to add more value to our customers businesses and very often we find that combining forces with complimentary vendors like SAP means that the combined solution is more relevant for the customer. As an example, we have an industrial Augmented Reality (AR) solution and one of the key use cases for that solution is in warehousing by using a hands-free AR solution. A warehouse worker can be guided through the process of picking and packing and that solution, when combined with SAP's warehouse management solution takes the combined software to the next level. From a customer perspective, that helps the customer achieve their digital transformation goals much quicker.



When you talk about extended reality David, you're talking about AR but there's others as well, can you tell us about the difference between the extended reality platforms?

Augmented Reality is a term that has been very loosely applied to multiple technologies and variations. When you talk about AR, for most people, what comes to mind is Virtual Reality (VR), Oculus, gaming etc but that's not where TeamViewer as a company plays in, so our focus is entirely on the industrial space.



How is AR software relevant for the water industry? what sort of spaces do you see Team Viewer and SAP being used?

AR is most relevant to Industries and businesses who have a field work force, if you look at typical water utilities especially if it's a large water utility, they might have between 1-2 thousand, if not more and all these field workers need to have access to the backend business software in some shape or form to be able to do their jobs properly. In some cases, they use a tablet and that works but sometimes it does not make sense, it leads to some safety and ergonomic issues. In other cases, they use pen and paper to jot down their findings in the field, they then go back to their office, hop on their computer, type it all up etc and a lot of workers feel those admin tasks are a chore and it's doubling up their work.

With hands-free technology like assisted reality, what we can provide these field workers with the ability to do their documentation on-site so they can do the interaction with the backend business software at the site itself. They don't have to double up their work back in the office and they can do all of that in a very ergonomically friendly, hands-free safe manner.



How does the SAP TeamViewer software help with sustainability in water?

One of the key benefits which our customers derive from our software is reducing carbon emissions primarily through restricting fleet movements. If you have an issue at a pumping station and the staff at the pumping station are not familiar with that particular problem and don't know how to fix it, rather than sending someone from another city, flying that person over, then driving for another half a day and getting to the site and fixing the issue, that particular person can be at the head office, remotely guide the workers at the pumping station via Augmented Reality and fix the issue without any time delay, so cumulatively you take into account the number of fleet movements and travel required for these field workers in a water industry, add that up together and the end result is a massive carbon offset.



What is the future for this sort of technology and do you think that there's a lot of incredible opportunities just waiting to be unlocked?

Technologies like AR in the industrial world is not entirely new, they have been adopted for the better part of the last decade however we have still only scratched the tip of the iceberg in truly transforming how people go about their daily work. It's changing the workspace and giving the field workers the same level of access to digital tools as someone who sits in an office in front of a computer and that's truly transformative.

The best thing about these technologies is it’s very adaptable can be customised to the exact processes of the business. Once you embed technologies like AR as part of the digital workspace of your workforce, the possibilities are limitless. We're not just talking about time, cost, or travel savings, we’re talking about a better way to do work.



Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by Schneider Electric.

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with David Manuel (Strategic Alliances Manager at TeamViewer) to augmented reality in the water industry.
David Manuel is a self-described evangelist for transformative technologies and has implemented extended reality solutions as part of his role at TeamViewer. He joins podcast host Jo Taranto to implore other water utilities and professionals to get more involved in the Augmented Reality (AR) space.
 
David, you’re a self-described evangelist for transformative technologies, I haven't heard that term before, can you tell me what you're passionate about and how you got involved in this space?
It’s all in the name! Transformative technologies help transform business operations and the lives of people so being an evangelist means I'm someone who likes to get involved in emerging technologies which haven't been established in the market yet. I’m out there proclaiming the message of the new technology. That is my passion.
 
Have you got a software background yourself?
I started off in the IT industry as a project engineer in software but very quickly I realised that I li8ke explaining technology to other people more and that’s how I slowly got into sales and now I manage alliance for TeamViewer.
 
Your role is about building partnerships between different platforms or software and one of those is this relationship between TeamViewer and SAP, can you tell me how it came about?
From a TeamViewer perspective, we like to add more value to our customers businesses and very often we find that combining forces with complimentary vendors like SAP means that the combined solution is more relevant for the customer. As an example, we have an industrial Augmented Reality (AR) solution and one of the key use cases for that solution is in warehousing by using a hands-free AR solution. A warehouse worker can be guided through the process of picking and packing and that solution, when combined with SAP's warehouse management solution takes the combined software to the next level. From a customer perspective, that helps the customer achieve their digital transformation goals much quicker.
 
When you talk about extended reality David, you're talking about AR but there's others as well, can you tell us about the difference between the extended reality platforms?
Augmented Reality is a term that has been very loosely applied to multiple technologies and variations. When you talk about AR, for most people, what comes to mind is Virtual Reality (VR), Oculus, gaming etc but that's not where TeamViewer as a company plays in, so our focus is entirely on the industrial space.
 
How is AR software relevant for the water industry? what sort of spaces do you see Team Viewer and SAP being used?
AR is most relevant to Industries and businesses who have a field work force, if you look at typical water utilities especially if it's a large water utility, they might have between 1-2 thousand, if not more and all these field workers need to have access to the backend business software in some shape or form to be able to do their jobs properly. In some cases, they use a tablet and that works but sometimes it does not make sense, it leads to some safety and ergonomic issues. In other cases, they use pen and paper to jot down their findings in the field, they then go back to their office, hop on their computer, type it all up etc and a lot of workers feel those admin tasks are a chore and it's doubling up their work.
With hands-free technology like assisted reality, what we can provide these field workers with the ability to do their documentation on-site so they can do the interaction with the backend business software at the site itself. They don't have to double up their work back in the office and they can do all of that in a very ergonomically friendly, hands-free safe manner.
 
How does the SAP TeamViewer software help with sustainability in water?
One of the key benefits which our customers derive from our software is reducing carbon emissions primarily through restricting fleet movements. If you have an issue at a pumping station and the staff at the pumping station are not familiar with that particular problem and don't know how to fix it, rather than sending someone from another city, flying that person over, then driving for another half a day and getting to the site and fixing the issue, that particular person can be at the head office, remotely guide the workers at the pumping station via Augmented Reality and fix the issue without any time delay, so cumulatively you take into account the number of fleet movements and travel required for these field workers in a water industry, add that up together and the end result is a massive carbon offset.
 
What is the future for this sort of technology and do you think that there's a lot of incredible opportunities just waiting to be unlocked?
Technologies like AR in the industrial world is not entirely new, they have been adopted for the better part of the last decade however we have still only scratched the tip of the iceberg in truly transforming how people go about their daily work. It's changing the workspace and giving the field workers the same level of access to digital tools as someone who sits in an office in front of a computer and that's truly transformative.
The best thing about these technologies is it’s very adaptable can be customised to the exact processes of the business. Once you embed technologies like AR as part of the digital workspace of your workforce, the possibilities are limitless. We're not just talking about time, cost, or travel savings, we’re talking about a better way to do work.
 
Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by <a href="https://www.se.com/ww/en/">Schneider Electric</a>.

Putting the AR in Water with David Manuel of TeamViewer and SAP

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with Paul Higham (Head of Western Sydney Development at Sydney Water) to discuss Sydney Water's plans for a sustainable water future amidst a changing climate, a growing population, the ever-expanding Western Sydney region and incorporation of First Nations science.

Paul has spent almost 14 years working at Sydney Water across many leadership roles involving strategy, corporate social responsibility, assets, infrastructure and liveable city solutions. Paul joined Jo Taranto at Ozwater'23 last year to discuss the future of Sydney and water.

Paul, you've worked with Sydney Water for over 13 years, you must have seen some big changes in that time?

Certainly, the industry and the city has evolved a great deal over that period. I came over from the United Kingdom 13 years ago, Sydney water was ready for change and the city was evolving and the last 10 years or so have been exciting about how the new city will take shape out to 2050 and that's what the Greater Sydney water strategy is all about.



So, we're here to talk a little bit about that strategy for those who don't know anything about it, it's a New South Wales Government document, is that how it works?

Yes, it’s a document that's been released by NSW Government that looks at the long-term view and long-term vision of what water will be like for Greater Sydney. It's a 20-year plan with a 40-year vision and it's been done in partnership various agencies including the State Government, Department of Planning and Environment, Water NSW etc.



It’s not just thinking about a changing city, it's also thinking about a changing climate, is that right?

Correct, only do we live on the hottest, driest continent in the world, but we are now seeing the impacts of climate change, droughts and floods, our environment is changing around us. Our city is growing and the (Greater Sydney) population will grow [from] five million people to an excess of 7 million people and we will progressively move west as the city grows and expands.



How do you then bring a community on board when you're talking about a strategy and a changing approach potentially from a utility? You've got your existing communities, but you've got a whole bunch of new parts of the city, how do you engage and bring your community with you?

We’ve done an awful lot of work; we historically always have engaged with our communities. We’ve been going through deliberative forums and very broad engagement around what our customers expect and value from us as an organisation and as an industry. There’s a lot of conversations around not just the water supply that we get from the tap every day, 365 days a year, but what they expect from healthy waterways or liveability and greening. The growth of climate change is tricky because what are customers’ expectations around the role that we play in responding to and managing the consequences of climate change?

That rich feedback is coming out of very thorough engagement with our communities, and I assure you they're not shy of telling you what they want and what they aspire. What we've got to understand are what are the trade-offs to be able to achieve that? For our customers, long-term affordability is going to be key.



We already know that climate change is here. What does it look like when you are talking about water resilience and water supply and what is Sydney Water doing to respond?

Traditionally, our city has relied upon rainfall dependent sources, 85% of our water comes from Warragamba and other dams around the city. The desalination plant can also provide up to 15% of the city's water demand but as climate evolves and as climate changes, the reliance on rainfall is going to be harder.

The idea of building more rainfall dependent sources in a drought doesn't make logical sense in the long-term, particularly if the climate is going to get drier and hotter, so really thinking about how we plan for those rainfall independent water suppliers and considering all options like Purified Recycled Water (PRW) and engaging with the community on this as a viable solution. Is it something that they would accept in the long run? It’s practiced in 35 cities across the world.



Sydney Water has adopted a Net-Zero emissions target for 2030 there’s an ambitious circular economy program as well, what does it mean for Sydney water and its existing assets?

When we think about climate change, we think about two aspects.
Adaptation - how do we adapt our existing infrastructure to respond to what other climate change will bring?
Abatement is what is our role in actually supporting the change of managing the climate change as it evolves? When we talk about abatement, we're thinking about net carbon zero and what activities can we undertake to reduce our carbon emissions as an organisation.

We’re servicing a population of five million people with water every day and it’s quite an energy intensive operation, we must do the pumping, collection, sourcing, distribution and implement renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydro and optimise these technologies.



Increasingly, the industry is acknowledging and respecting First Nation's connection to water so how is Sydney Water approaching this when it comes to planning?

We start with the position that our First Nations communities have been sustainably managing land and water for years and beyond. Through our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), we’re thinking about how we can bring that Indigenous knowledge into our planning, program, and processes. We must start internally initially with cultural awareness and getting people aware of what have the First Nations communities done and how do they think about the value of water?

We have close engagement with local Aboriginal land councils and language groups, and we asked them to participate in our asset planning to think about the cultural aspects to and the historic connection with Sydney. We need to make sure that we're considering the needs of those communities. We can learn from their experiences and embedding it in how we plan our infrastructure for the growing city is critical for the future it really does create positive value for us.



Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by Schneider Electric.

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with Paul Higham (Head of Western Sydney Development at Sydney Water) to discuss Sydney Water's plans for a sustainable water future amidst a changing climate, a growing population, the ever-expanding Western Sydney region and incorporation of First Nations science.
Paul has spent almost 14 years working at Sydney Water across many leadership roles involving strategy, corporate social responsibility, assets, infrastructure and liveable city solutions. Paul joined Jo Taranto at Ozwater'23 last year to discuss the future of Sydney and water.
Paul, you've worked with Sydney Water for over 13 years, you must have seen some big changes in that time?
Certainly, the industry and the city has evolved a great deal over that period. I came over from the United Kingdom 13 years ago, Sydney water was ready for change and the city was evolving and the last 10 years or so have been exciting about how the new city will take shape out to 2050 and that's what the Greater Sydney water strategy is all about. 
So, we're here to talk a little bit about that strategy for those who don't know anything about it, it's a New South Wales Government document, is that how it works?
Yes, it’s a document that's been released by NSW Government that looks at the long-term view and long-term vision of what water will be like for Greater Sydney. It's a 20-year plan with a 40-year vision and it's been done in partnership various agencies including the State Government, Department of Planning and Environment, Water NSW etc.
 
It’s not just thinking about a changing city, it's also thinking about a changing climate, is that right?
Correct, only do we live on the hottest, driest continent in the world, but we are now seeing the impacts of climate change, droughts and floods, our environment is changing around us. Our city is growing and the (Greater Sydney) population will grow [from] five million people to an excess of 7 million people and we will progressively move west as the city grows and expands.
 
How do you then bring a community on board when you're talking about a strategy and a changing approach potentially from a utility? You've got your existing communities, but you've got a whole bunch of new parts of the city, how do you engage and bring your community with you?
We’ve done an awful lot of work; we historically always have engaged with our communities. We’ve been going through deliberative forums and very broad engagement around what our customers expect and value from us as an organisation and as an industry. There’s a lot of conversations around not just the water supply that we get from the tap every day, 365 days a year, but what they expect from healthy waterways or liveability and greening. The growth of climate change is tricky because what are customers’ expectations around the role that we play in responding to and managing the consequences of climate change?
That rich feedback is coming out of very thorough engagement with our communities, and I assure you they're not shy of telling you what they want and what they aspire. What we've got to understand are what are the trade-offs to be able to achieve that? For our customers, long-term affordability is going to be key.
 
We already know that climate change is here. What does it look like when you are talking about water resilience and water supply and what is Sydney Water doing to respond?
Traditionally, our city has relied upon rainfall dependent sources, 85% of our water comes from Warragamba and other dams around the city. The desalination plant can also provide up to 15% of the city's water demand but as climate evolves and as climate changes, the reliance on rainfall is going to be harder.
The idea of building more rainfall dependent sources in a drought doesn't make logical sense in the long-term, particularly if the climate is going to get drier and hotter, so really thinking about how we plan for those rainfall independent water suppliers and considering all options like Purified Recycled Water (PRW) and engaging with the community on this as a viable solution. Is it something that they would accept in the long run? It’s practiced in 35 cities across the world.
 
Sydney Water has adopted a Net-Zero emissions target for 2030 there’s an ambitious circular economy program as well, what does it mean for Sydney water and its existing assets?
When we think about climate change, we think about two aspects.
<ol>
<li>Adaptation - how do we adapt our existing infrastructure to respond to what other climate change will bring?</li>
<li>Abatement is what is our role in actually supporting the change of managing the climate change as it evolves? When we talk about abatement, we're thinking about net carbon zero and what activities can we undertake to reduce our carbon emissions as an organisation.</li>
</ol>
We’re servicing a population of five million people with water every day and it’s quite an energy intensive operation, we must do the pumping, collection, sourcing, distribution and implement renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydro and optimise these technologies.
 
Increasingly, the industry is acknowledging and respecting First Nation's connection to water so how is Sydney Water approaching this when it comes to planning?
We start with the position that our First Nations communities have been sustainably managing land and water for years and beyond. Through our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), we’re thinking about how we can bring that Indigenous knowledge into our planning, program, and processes. We must start internally initially with cultural awareness and getting people aware of what have the First Nations communities done and how do they think about the value of water?
We have close engagement with local Aboriginal land councils and language groups, and we asked them to participate in our asset planning to think about the cultural aspects to and the historic connection with Sydney. We need to make sure that we're considering the needs of those communities. We can learn from their experiences and embedding it in how we plan our infrastructure for the growing city is critical for the future it really does create positive value for us.
 
Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by <a href="https://www.se.com/ww/en/">Schneider Electric</a>.

Beyond 2030 with Paul Higham of Sydney Water

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with Judy Arasanilai (Water Quality Systems Officer at MidCoast Council) to discuss Water Quality in MidCoast Drinking Water Catchments - Impacts of Drought, Bushfires, Rain & Recovery.

The MidCoast area suffered a three-pronged climate attack with droughts, severe rainfall and bushfire affecting the local communities and impacting water sources including catchment and groundwater. Judy Arasanilai completed research on local catchments to better improve water conditions while abiding by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.



There’s been a situation where several severe weather events have placed the drinking water in your area under significant strain can you tell us a little bit about what happened over the period?

From when we had the first drought in the MidCoast Council area and then it was the hottest and driest year on record for us and all our drinking water catchments and the rivers ceased to flow by December. We also had the bush fires from October to December which was the worst bushfire wise in in Australia in terms of deaths and area affected.

All our catchments were affected by the bush fires and our biggest catchment is the Manning catchment which supplies our biggest customers. We have been using extensive groundwater supplies not only for drinking purposes but also to provide water for firefighting effects as well so when the rains were predicted for January, we needed the water.



How did you choose the testing sites?

We knew that two of our water supply drinking water catchments were affected by the fires, the Manning and the Crawford catchments and the Manning catchment is the biggest catchment and made up of several sub catchments.

The fires and the drought also affected vegetation, the soils become parched and then the fires came in and burned all the trays so now the catchments become even more erodible.

We also have metals and firefighting chemicals like fire suppression come into the waterways so if we extract the water, it presents challenges to our water treatment plants and processes. This is particularly crucial as when we supply the water to the customers, we have to comply to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines so that we don't adversely affect the customers health.

We needed to go back and assess the risk and tweak our treatment processes so that’s why we needed to do the study, to find out whether we can mitigate these risks or whether we needed to go back and look for another water source. These three weather events happening in a row are a unique opportunity for us to study and plan for the future.



When you were doing the testing, did you expect the results to have a different combination of impacts than if you just had a drought, or fire, or heavy rain as opposed to almost all three in a tight succession, did that really skew what you saw?

Yes, the drought parched all the vegetation and soil as I mentioned prior so the water wouldn't flow through the soil, and it made the soil erodible. The bush fires led to all the ash and the vegetation is now gone because the vegetation would have held the soil together and filtered some of the contaminants but now the vegetation is gone as well and then the high intensity rain would have washed all these contaminants into the water. All three events had a devastating effect compared to if it was just individualised.



Was there anything surprising in the results?

With the Barrington catchment, we saw recovery at the second phase of our research, however surprisingly the Barrington and the Crawford River catchments during the initial results had peaks of nutrients and organic carbon which basically comes from the burnt vegetation. During the subsequent rainfall events, we saw a decrease in those contaminants, we still had a peak but not as high as the initial peak. We expected that everything would be washed into the sea after this rain event and the vegetation would regrow naturally but when we looked at the Barrington and the Crawford catchments, the peaks were different for each so that was the surprise but also, we didn’t see any metals in the water.

After we did the initial test, we optimised our water treatment processes and we increased our monitoring. We have an extensive network of reservoir and reticulation pipes so it's a big system, so we had to go in and put chlorine tablets in the reservoir. By doing this, we were able to supply safe drinking water to all the communities.



How will your findings help MidCoast Council plan for future water management strategies?
We can see that these events are going to become more frequent because our region is getting dryer and hotter while simultaneously, the rainfall events are becoming more intense and unpredictable as well. These events are going to be more frequent so what we've done is we’ve created a base for future work and identified the gaps as well so currently our Council is in the middle of doing integrated water cycle management strategy which means we look at the whole of the water supply system.

It’s a strategic plan so the Council are looking at where they may need extra dams or whether they need extra groundwater supplies. We've got all this information for the planning team who can use this information and plan accordingly. We've also got a water resilience team, so they are looking at making the systems more drought resilient because we also must consider the community.

The Council also have a Catchment Manning River Estuary and catchment management plan so that the communities receive good drinking water sources and they have also got our information, research, and results to utilise to make the drinking water catchments safer.



Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by Schneider Electric.

In the latest episode of our United by Water podcast, host Jo Taranto sits down with Judy Arasanilai (Water Quality Systems Officer at MidCoast Council) to discuss Water Quality in MidCoast Drinking Water Catchments - Impacts of Drought, Bushfires, Rain &amp; Recovery.
The MidCoast area suffered a three-pronged climate attack with droughts, severe rainfall and bushfire affecting the local communities and impacting water sources including catchment and groundwater. Judy Arasanilai completed research on local catchments to better improve water conditions while abiding by the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.
 
There’s been a situation where several severe weather events have placed the drinking water in your area under significant strain can you tell us a little bit about what happened over the period?
From when we had the first drought in the MidCoast Council area and then it was the hottest and driest year on record for us and all our drinking water catchments and the rivers ceased to flow by December. We also had the bush fires from October to December which was the worst bushfire wise in in Australia in terms of deaths and area affected.
All our catchments were affected by the bush fires and our biggest catchment is the Manning catchment which supplies our biggest customers. We have been using extensive groundwater supplies not only for drinking purposes but also to provide water for firefighting effects as well so when the rains were predicted for January, we needed the water.
 
How did you choose the testing sites?
We knew that two of our water supply drinking water catchments were affected by the fires, the Manning and the Crawford catchments and the Manning catchment is the biggest catchment and made up of several sub catchments.
The fires and the drought also affected vegetation, the soils become parched and then the fires came in and burned all the trays so now the catchments become even more erodible.
We also have metals and firefighting chemicals like fire suppression come into the waterways so if we extract the water, it presents challenges to our water treatment plants and processes. This is particularly crucial as when we supply the water to the customers, we have to comply to the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines so that we don't adversely affect the customers health.
We needed to go back and assess the risk and tweak our treatment processes so that’s why we needed to do the study, to find out whether we can mitigate these risks or whether we needed to go back and look for another water source. These three weather events happening in a row are a unique opportunity for us to study and plan for the future.
 
When you were doing the testing, did you expect the results to have a different combination of impacts than if you just had a drought, or fire, or heavy rain as opposed to almost all three in a tight succession, did that really skew what you saw?
Yes, the drought parched all the vegetation and soil as I mentioned prior so the water wouldn't flow through the soil, and it made the soil erodible. The bush fires led to all the ash and the vegetation is now gone because the vegetation would have held the soil together and filtered some of the contaminants but now the vegetation is gone as well and then the high intensity rain would have washed all these contaminants into the water. All three events had a devastating effect compared to if it was just individualised.
 
Was there anything surprising in the results?
With the Barrington catchment, we saw recovery at the second phase of our research, however surprisingly the Barrington and the Crawford River catchments during the initial results had peaks of nutrients and organic carbon which basically comes from the burnt vegetation. During the subsequent rainfall events, we saw a decrease in those contaminants, we still had a peak but not as high as the initial peak. We expected that everything would be washed into the sea after this rain event and the vegetation would regrow naturally but when we looked at the Barrington and the Crawford catchments, the peaks were different for each so that was the surprise but also, we didn’t see any metals in the water.
After we did the initial test, we optimised our water treatment processes and we increased our monitoring. We have an extensive network of reservoir and reticulation pipes so it's a big system, so we had to go in and put chlorine tablets in the reservoir. By doing this, we were able to supply safe drinking water to all the communities.
 
How will your findings help MidCoast Council plan for future water management strategies? We can see that these events are going to become more frequent because our region is getting dryer and hotter while simultaneously, the rainfall events are becoming more intense and unpredictable as well. These events are going to be more frequent so what we've done is we’ve created a base for future work and identified the gaps as well so currently our Council is in the middle of doing integrated water cycle management strategy which means we look at the whole of the water supply system.
It’s a strategic plan so the Council are looking at where they may need extra dams or whether they need extra groundwater supplies. We've got all this information for the planning team who can use this information and plan accordingly. We've also got a water resilience team, so they are looking at making the systems more drought resilient because we also must consider the community.
The Council also have a Catchment Manning River Estuary and catchment management plan so that the communities receive good drinking water sources and they have also got our information, research, and results to utilise to make the drinking water catchments safer.
 
Season 7, United by Water is proudly sponsored by <a href="https://www.se.com/ww/en/">Schneider Electric</a>.

Pride in Water and WaterAble discuss diversity, inclusion and advocacy in the Water sector

Australian Water Association Podcast - United by Water

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Australian Water Association Podcast

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