Water Wise Issue 2

Welcome to Water Wise

Since our last newsletter, water continues to be on the agenda as Australia’s water crisis shows no sign of recovering.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned of the high likelihood of another El Nino event and John Howard announced a new Office of Water Resources saying, “the sustainable management of Australia''s scarce water resources is one of our nation''s most significant challenges.”

Water restrictions are tightening in many areas: Melbourne recently moved to Stage 1 restrictions and both Brisbane and the Gold Coast have moved to Stage 3; Sydney also sits at Stage 3 while Adelaide and Perth have permanent water conservation measures in place.

There has been little rain in most of these areas and again we are looking toward a long hot Australian summer. Recent media reports have put a price on water, which has elevated the status of this issue. Members of government are attempting to address the problem in many ways, although all agree, some form of water recycling or harvesting must be implemented. Whether this is implemented on mass or at the local level is still up for debate.

New Water’s approach is to tackle this problem at the local level. For example, if 125,000 new homes built in Australia over the next year installed the Aqua Reviva it would save each home 500 litres of water per day. That’s 62 million litres of water per day or equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool stretching from Melbourne to Darwin!

In our commitment to help Australians be more water efficient through innovation, we have recently launched the new In-slab Rain Reviva and the indoor Rain Alert Gauge.

I hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter and, as always, if you have any questions regarding our water solutions, please contact us on 1300 NEWWATER

Andrew Pearce,
CEO, New Water

Innovative in-slab tanks take rainwater capture to new levels…

 The In-Slab tank is a rigid tank that replaces a typical waffle pod and can be incorporated into the concrete slab of new houses without affecting the integrity of the slab. The In-Slab tanks work by storing the captured rainwater in a number of interconnected pods or ‘cells’.

The In-Slab tanks have a 660 litre capacity per unit, although number of units that can be incorporated into the slab is limited only by the size and type of slab.

The Rain Reviva In-Slab unit costs $2,050 for 3 pods holding 2,000 litres.

For more information go to Rain Reviva's in-slab tank page.

New Rain Alert Gauge to monitor tank levels without leaving your home…

New Water has introduced a new and easy way to monitor the level of your rainwater tank from a convenient location inside the house.

The new Rain Alert Gauge is a measurement device suitable for all vented tanks up to three metres high.

The device consists of a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter sits on top of the tank, using ‘ultrasonics’ to gauge the level of fluid in the tank. The receiver, which can be located up to 200 metres from the tank, is plugged into a power-point with a small LCD panel continuously showing how much water is in your tank.

When the tank is below a pre-determined level, the LCD panel will flash a ‘Tank Fill’ picture, and when it is almost empty a red warning light will flash to indicate the low tank level.

Rain Alert is a safe option to monitoring tank levels as it doesn’t require climbing on top of the tank and reaching in to make measurements. All it involves is reading the LCD display which may be located in the kitchen, bathroom, garage or shed.

The device is suitable for New Water’s Rain Reviva and the lithium battery in the transmitter has a life of ten years and the entire device comes with a one year warranty. The cost of a standard unit is $160 including GST. The Rain Alert Gauge is available now from New Water.

For more information go to the New Water website.

New Water invited to Premier’s Water Forum…

 New Water was invited to appear at the first water forum at Queensland’s Parliament House in Brisbane. At the forum on 12 August, Premier Peter Beattie outlined his government’s response to the South East Queensland’s drought with measures making it easier for residents to save water through recycling.

“We are also amending the use of greywater provisions to make it easier for people to use greywater recycling on their gardens and lawns and remove red tape which has hampered uptake of this water saving measure,” Beattie said in an earlier statement.

“We estimate that by minimising or removing losses from existing council water supply systems, at least 22,000 million litres of water could be saved every year,” he said.

Queensland representative Rob Shiels said New Water was one of only four companies in the water industry that was asked to set up a display stand on the parliamentary courtyard.

“We had a Rain Reviva set up and a display unit of the Aqua Reviva which we have now received Queensland State approval. We also had a 3200 litre slim line tank on display. The forum was open to the public and we spoke to about 30 to 40 people,” he said.

“We met Ron Clarke, Gold Coast Mayor who showed interest in the Aqua Reviva. As a result of that display we have since met with him again at his council offices to educate him in more detail about the system for homes on the Gold Coast.”

For more information about the Aqua Reviva go here.

Melbourne Television personality puts stop to water guzzling…

While gardener and television personality Margot McDonald is passionate about plants, she is also concerned about water guzzling in gardens across Australia.

McDonald is the Researcher, Host and Producer of The Garden Tap, a television program screened in Adelaide and Melbourne on local community television. She has been producing the show for almost three years and providing a wealth of gardening information and exploring gardens all over Victoria.

In her garden, situated in the Melbourne Suburb of East Brighton, she chose to install both the Rain Reviva and Aqua Reviva.

"Installing the Aqua Reviva and Rain Reviva systems has allowed me to choose different plants in the garden- not just those that are drought hardy. Although I have steered away from the old English gardens in this hot climate, I love being able to grow a variety of plants, many rare and unusual, some of which do require regular watering to thrive," Mrs McDonald said.

"I also installed the New Water systems to do my bit to save our precious water resources. Australia is one of the driest continents on Earth so we have to think about innovative ways of using less water.

"I’ve always wanted to collect rainwater and recycle water but never wanted to take up the back garden with huge tanks. So when I saw these systems I got really excited because they can’t be seen. It’s fantastic," she said.

Margot is also very happy with her new Reviva system because it was so easy to install.

"The installation process for both systems was so simple. The plumbers were fabulous and installed the systems with any fuss ¬ I left it to the experts and provided the tea, sandwiches, and the occasional tap step," she said.

"The Rain Reviva system harnesses and stores the rain water from our roof, and Aqua Reviva system collects and treats the shower, basin and washing machine water. That water can be stored for as along as I like so I never run out of water. We use it to flush the toilets, water the garden and occasionally wash the car and even the dogs," she said.

For more information have a look at the Rain Reviva website or the Aqua Reviva website.

Peter, in Faulconbridge, saves on his water bill by 20 percent …

NSW resident Peter Crow personally installed a Rain Reviva bladder-tank that can hold a total of 4,000 litres of rain water at his home in Faulconbridge.

“We wanted to make space under a recently added sunroom useful,” Crowe said.

“With the restrictions on water, we decided to put in a rainwater tank, but weren’t happy with what was around. Then we discovered the flexible Rain Reviva, which was a perfect solution because of space under the sunroom.”

Although a traditional water tank will only capture water from one side of the roof, the Rain Reviva system uses the entire catchment surface area of the roof, which means that more rainwater is diverted into the tank.

“By installing the Rain Reviva system and using other water conservation methods, our water bill has dropped by 20 percent. We are very happy with the Rain Reviva, it was a good investment.

“We use the water from the Rain Reviva system to water our vegetable garden and to wash the car,” he said.

For more information about Rain Reviva go here.

Melbourne water restrictions no problem for Mal…

Mal Sealey of Vermont South in Melbourne was one of the first people in Australia to install the Rain Reviva bladder-tank system under his house.

“We have two three-and-a-half thousand litre tanks under the house, and all we need is one downfall of rain and we have a full seven thousand litres of water to use – it is just fantastic,” Sealey said.

“Whenever I turn the tap on to water the lawn, I know there will be water there and it also means we’re the only house in the street with green lawn, which is very important to us.

“The normal form of water tank is unsightly and I don’t like them, whereas these tanks stay out of sight. We also use the water to wash the car and we’ll consider linking it in to the sprinkler system,” Sealey said.

For more information go to the Rain Reviva website.

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