Water Champion - Museum and Art Gallery of the NT

The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, with the help of Power and Water’s Living Water Smart program have made significant water savings by fixing leaks and some simple changes to their garden irrigation schedules.

“Aside from the money saved, it’s the environmentally responsible thing to do,” says Mr David Anderson from Darwin’s much loved Museum and Art Gallery.  “We’re really pleased to be one of Living Water Smart’s Water Champions”.

David proudly explains: “We noticed a rise in our water bill, so decided to investigate why.  Peter Van Roden from our facilities team got in touch with Living Water Smart and by working together we were soon able to determine that we had sprung a significant leak,” explains David.  “We got this fixed as quickly as possible and are now always on the lookout for leaks in case this was to happen again”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Museum and Art Gallery also adjusted their irrigation schedule to be more efficient, reducing their irrigation run times by almost half.  Whilst still wanting visitors to enjoy healthy gardens and green lawn, the Museum and Art Gallery were happy to see a drastic saving of 290 000 litres which equates to nearly $600 a week, without any great impact to their gardens.     

“Towards the end of the Dry, our gardens weren’t quite as lush as other years but they were still vibrant and beautiful.  Darwin is not a wet tropical city all year round; we have almost six months with little or no rain at all, so we thought it fine to show visitors the changes in the environment,” says David.  “Whilst there are some costs we can’t do anything about, like the amount of water used in the air-conditioning cooling towers, we think if there are ways we can be more water efficient then it’s the right thing to do – both economically and environmentally”. 

Living Water Smart thank the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory for being a Living Water Smart Water Champion.