Water is at the heart of Cockburn ARC – from its waterslides and pools, to being the home of the port city’s Fremantle Dockers – and today, Water Minister Dave Kelly recognised the facility as Western Australia’s 40th Waterwise Aquatic Centre.
The Waterwise Aquatic Centre Program is a joint initiative of the Water Corporation and the Leisure Institute of Western Australia Aquatics, to provide aquatic centre managers with advice and information to review operational water use and support to promote waterwise practices.
Over the past decade, through the program, Waterwise Aquatic Centres have saved about 858 million litres of water – in aquatic centre terms that is 381 Olympic swimming pools of water.
The City of Cockburn’s state-of-the-art Cockburn ARC facility includes nine water areas, three waterslides and even specialist hot and cold pools, with these temperature controlled pools forming part of the recovery for Fremantle Dockers’ players.
The facility is extremely waterwise, from all fixtures and fittings such as showers and taps, to real-time and daily monitoring of water use at the site. It has a high efficiency pool water filtration to significantly reduce total water use.
The City of Cockburn’s sustainability efforts also include the generation of power and heating via rooftop solar installation and geothermal. The rooftop solar installation provides about a third of the facility’s annual load and a carbon dioxide offset of 1,170 tonnes per year.
With 115 aquatic centres throughout the State, the Waterwise Aquatic Centre Program aims to have all metropolitan aquatic centres endorsed as waterwise by 2022 and all regional aquatic centres endorsed by 2030.
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As stated by Water Minister Dave Kelly:
“Congratulations to the City of Cockburn for its commitment to creating a sustainable, waterwise aquatic centre for the community.
“Cockburn ARC is a true demonstration that being sustainable does not compromise visitor experience, with the centre achieving more than one million visitors within its first year – which was not expected until its fourth year of operation.
“In the south-west of WA, climate change has caused a 20 per cent reduction in May to July rainfall since the 1970s, so it is important we continue to invest in sustainable, waterwise facilities for our communities.
“I encourage aquatic centres throughout the State to follow Cockburn ARC’s outstanding example and consider looking at water efficiencies to help save precious water.”
