Water Supply & Types

Water supply and conservation are key issues. Ask these questions:

  • Where is your water sourced?
  • What procedures are in place to reduce the demand for water?
  • How much waste water is produced?
  • What ends up in the waste water?

Water may be supplied to the event by water tankers, by mains water, or the event may harvest water off roofs, stored in tanks for use during the event. Whichever method water conservation should be the goal. Water can be sourced from:

  • Municipal mains
  • Tankered in
  • Rainwater tanks onsite
  • Local natural water supply
  • Artesian/ground water/wells/bore
  • Onsite dams
  • Desalination plants or waste water purification processing

Transport impacts of water supply and waste water disposal are also considerations if water needs to be tankered the event and waste water and sewage tankered away.

Water used and waste water created at festivals and events can include:

Clear Water:
For drinking only, supplied from standpipes if water is ‘potable’ (drinkable) or from bulk dispensing tanks.

Blue Water: For washing, showering and other human contact activities. This can be bore water, from a dam, river, tanks or other supply. Not suitable for drinking.

Grey Water: Used water from showers or other washing operations. The water doesn’t have any organic contamination. This grey water can be recycled to toilet flushing once filtered, used for non-contact activities, or stored on-site and then used for irrigation.

Brown/Black Water: Effluent from toilets and sullage from food stall washing up.  This usually goes straight down the sewer drain, into a septic tank, or for temporary events, kept in tanks and then taken by ‘suck trucks’ which dispose of it into the sewer system.

Water use and climate change
By reducing the amount of water used, not only is a precious resource conserved, but there is also a direct impact on greenhouse gas emissions reduction – this is through reducing the need to transport water and sewage to and from the event, and through the energy needed to produce potable water and process sewage.