WRAMS - Water Reclamation and Management Scheme

The Water Reclamation and Management Scheme (WRAMS) is an excellent example of how innovative environmental technology has been used for water recycling and conservation. WRAMS is a complete system for water management of a discrete area, encompassing stormwater harvesting, improving stormwater quality for irrigation needs, water treatment infrastructure, water supply infrastructure and sewage treatment.

WRAMS is designed to save more than 850 million litres of drinking water annually and was Australia's first large scale urban water recycling scheme. WRAMS supplies high quality recycled water to all sporting venues, commercial facilities and parklands of Sydney Olympic Park and the neighbouring residential suburb of Newington. Approximately 40% is used for toilet flushing and the remaining 60% is used for irrigation and operational wash-down activities.

In addition, the sewer mining function of WRAMS diverts a significant volume of sewage from ocean outfalls, which would have otherwise been discharged into the Pacific Ocean. The stormwater storage capacity of WRAMS further minimises stormwater pollution, assists in providing viable habitat for fauna and is utilised in the water recycling process.

WRAMS demonstrates the viability of urban water recycling under real usage conditions and encourages the improvement of water management in urban development locally, nationally and internationally.

Key elements of WRAMS include:

• a water reclamation plant that removes water from sewage
• water storage reservoirs
• a water treatment plant to filter and disinfect water from the water reclamation plant and storage 
• a separate, dedicated supply system to pipe water from the treatment plant through Sydney Olympic Park and Newington.

Overall WRAMS has contributed to:

• reduction in consumption of drinking water by an additional 50%
• supply of approximately 500 million litres of recycled water in 2001/02
• treatment of approximately 550 million litres of sewage, which would otherwise be discharged to ocean outlets
• in the long term, WRAMS will halve the use of potable (drinking) water at The Park and Newington.

Under the Master Plan, connection to WRAMS is a mandatory requirement for all new development at Sydney Olympic Park.

In addition to saving significant volumes of potable water, WRAMS aims to foster greater public confidence in future wastewater reuse schemes and provide a better understanding of sustainable whole-of-catchment management strategies.

WRAMS demonstrates that large scale and complex works can be delivered in an environmentally sensitive manner with community participation as a cornerstone.

The Park has been recognised nationally for its integrated approach to water conservation, innovative water management practices and protection of biodiversity. It is clear that urban water recycling systems such as WRAMS are instrumental in resolving or sustainably managing much of the high priority urban water problems. Australia now needs to make schemes like WRAMS the norm not the exception.

Download the Recycle Water at Home (120K PDF) brochure.
Download the Urban Water Reuse and Integrated Water Management (200K PDF) document for an overview of WRAMS.