Huon Park retirement village saves thousands after joining Sydney’s Water’s WaterFix Commercial program

After noticing a hidden water leak, a North Shore retirement village has saved more than six million litres of water per year by making a simple switch.

Huon Park retirement village. Picture: Supplied.

After noticing a hidden water leak, a North Shore retirement village has saved more than six million litres of water per year by making a simple switch.

Huon Park retirement village in North Turramurra is one of 28 businesses across NSW which joined Sydney’s Water’s WaterFix Commercial program in the last two years.

The initiative has saved customers more than $750,000 in total usage charges and 290 million litres of water – the equivalent to around 116 Olympic sized swimming pools.

Huon Park manager Sue McKindlay noticed a spike in water usage and requested an inspection from the WaterFix Commercial team who discovered a sub metre connected to a hot water heater was leaking at least ten litres of water per day.

Upon further inspection by Sydney Water, the village’s water usage was 266L per resident per day - significantly higher than the recommended benchmark of 200L.

Sydney Water investigating a water leak at Huon Park Village. Picture: Supplied.

Ms McKindlay said the village saw a “huge reduction” in their water usage six months after Sydney Water installed a new online monitoring system to better access real time water usage data.

“A simple measure we’ve taken on board is reducing the frequency of irrigation around our gardens,” she said.

Huon Park retirement village has saved thousands after joining the Waterfix Commercial program. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s been a very valuable lesson for us in how to be mindful of our water usage and look at it in a different way.”

Sydney Water’s program officer for water conservation, Con Argiratos, said the program helped customers to achieve large scale and cost-effective savings when it came to their water usage.

“We see businesses benefit from water savings in the long term because once we identify ways in which a business can reduce their water consumption, we often see a change in behaviour and improve awareness of water usage patterns,” he said.

“Our aim is to minimise water wastage and therefore reduce our customers’ water bills,” Mr Argiratos said.

Ms McKindlay said other businesses should look into the program if they were looking to cut costs for the new year.

“I think any large business that’s got the head winds of cost increases coming at them should get in touch with Sydney Water to look at ways to save,” she said.