Purple pipes are lining roads through central Craigieburn as Yarra Valley Water rolls out recycled water connections to new growth areas.
The $600,000 project will extend the town’s recycled water supply by about a kilometre, from its source at the Mount Ridley recycled water tank.
The use of recycled water for flushing toilets, watering gardens, cleaning cars and washing clothes helps reduce unnecessary use of good drinking water.
A Yarra Valley Water spokeswoman said more than 40 per cent of everyday water was used for purposes that didn’t require it to be of drinking quality.
She said works to lay new pipes at Craigieburn should be completed by end of next month, depending on weather and ground conditions.
Yarra Valley Water will also invest $20 million to upgrade Wallan’s sewage treatment plant, replacing a lagoon settling pond with a four million-litre activated sludge treatment plant.
Managing director Pat McCafferty said it was important that water infrastructure kept up with demand.
“Currently we have more than 2000 properties in the north and east connected to recycled water,” Mr McCafferty said. “We expect this number to grow to more than 100,000 over the next 20 years.”
Works at the Wallan plant are expected to finish late 2016.
