Have you seen the new water play park at Livvy’s Place, Westport Park?
This awesome new community facility has made a real ‘splash’ in its opening weekend.
The design of this park was based on community feedback on our playgrounds. This park now allows for a variety of experiences across the two play areas and provides a great point of difference from most playgrounds. It’s great for young kids and parents who want a day out in the sun (or under the shade). You can have a picnic, splash around, enjoy a BBQ and swing within Livvi’s Place.
The park is wheelchair accessible and has path linkages to Livvi’s Place and Westport Foreshore Path.
If you’re an avid water-saver like many in our community, or just a little curious about how we design our facilities, then you might be wondering about the processes behind the scenes that clean and reuse the water in the park to keep the fun times flowing.
How does the Park’s Water Work?
Conserving our precious water is always at the forefront of our minds. This is no different even when planning and constructing exciting water play facilities for our community. As such, all water used in the park is collected, processed, and reused over and over again.
This process begins in an underground tank that holds clean water for use in the park. When you press the start button pumps make water spray out of the different water play elements of the playground and the excitement begins. But this is not where the story ends!
Water that runs off the park drains into a large 20,000L underground water balance tank to be cleaned and reused. The water cleaning process is the same as a public swimming pool but on a bigger scale. The cleaning process begins by passing water through a sand filter which removes larger particles in the water. It is then automatically tested and dosed with the correct amount of chlorine and other chemicals to sanitise and correct the pH of the water. Finally, it passes through an ultraviolet unit to sanitise the water one last time before it returns to the park. This system has the capacity to process the 20,000L of water in the balance tank 6 times every hour!!!
The only water that is lost from the park is from evaporation and filter cleaning. Approximately once a week 1500L is used during filter backwashing to clean the sand filter. The backwash water is plumbed into the wastewater network to be processed at our wastewater treatment facilities and returned to the environment.
Open 24/7, 11 months of the year!
The park is now officially open and will only close in July for annual cleaning and maintenance, so there are plenty of opportunities for locals and tourists, alike, to enjoy this new, exciting facility.
This project is grant-funded by the NSW Legacy Public Spaces Program with a Council contribution, and it’s just one example of the many innovative and sustainable initiatives that Port Macquarie Hastings Council is implementing as part of its long-term vision to become the most liveable, sustainable, and innovative place in Australia.
Keen to have your say on future projects like this one? Be sure to keep an eye out on our “Have Your Say” page – the best place to get involved, find out more and have your say about things that matter most to you.
