CERES Sustainable Water program

This interesting series of practical projects demonstrates technologies for water conservation and recycling in a variety of settings, including the home, nursery, café and community centre. The importance of behavioural change and the move to sustainable behaviours is also communicated.

CERES - Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies, is an award winning, not-for-profit, environment and education centre and urban farm located by the Merri Creek in East Brunswick, Melbourne.

Built on a decommissioned municipal tip that was once a landfill and wasteland, today CERES is a thriving, vibrant community. Over 300,000 people visit CERES each year. Many more connect with us through our innovative program taking sustainable education directly to schools across the State.

CERES is recognised as an international leader in community and environmental practice. CERES Organic Farm, Market, Shop, Co-ops and Café and Permaculture and Bushfood Nursery are unique social enterprises that offer new solutions and ways to combat climate change.

Community groups such as the Bike Shed, Community Gardens and Chook Group that call CERES home are also vital to CERES culture.

CERES has a long history of promoting environmentally sustainable technologies in areas such as waste, energy and water conservation. Existing water efficient initiatives in 2011 include:

• A large dam collecting site run-off and run-off from adjacent streets.
• The ‘Sustainable Energy House’ including a large rainwater tank and greywater reuse system. The rainwater tank provides all the water for the house, apart from one rainwater tap for drinking water in the kitchen. The Wattworks greywater system uses wastewater from the shower to flush the toilet.
• A system of 6 fully lined aquatic ponds (reticulated into one another) within the organic farm, to which storm water and rainwater from the stables is directed. The system utilizes the process of evapotranspiration and physical settling to trap suspended solids and nutrients and prevents the discharge of potentially polluted water to Merri Creek.
• An aquatic plant nursery within the organic farm, utilising stormwater.
• A horizontal reed bed greywater treatment system to which all waste water from the café is directed. This is used for research on alternative treatment systems, including microorganism inoculation to increase the effectiveness of the treatment processes.
• Use of an automatic overhead irrigation system in the organic farm propagation area to minimise water consumption through better management.
• Mulching of garden beds across large sections of the CERES site to conserve soil moisture and reduce the use of drinking water on gardens.
• Permapave filter testing and water quality assessment and Pervious Parking Carpark (research with RMIT).
• Installed a 150,000 litre underground tank drawing rainwater runoff from neighbouring properties in the market garden.
• A 50,000 litre underground tank adjacent to the village green for tank to toilet flushing and garden watering.
• The new Van Ray centre has a water conservation area including a stormwater treatment system that reuses the water on our vegetable gardens, a greywater system (proposed) dispersing water over our food forest and rainwater tanks harvesting water from the roof of the new centre and using this water to flush toilets and water adjacent gardens. 
• Monash University led by David Macarthy have recently completed a comparison study of 2 different storm water treatment systems at CERES.  This report is yet to be distributed.
• Most buildings on the site capture rainfall into a tank for localised gravity fed use and the overflow into an underground tank pumped to various locations.
• Several wicking beds and raingardens have been installed.
• Applying to install 2 commercial greywater systems to replace our decomissioned blackwater systems.