Australian Water Management Review Vol 2 2013 | Page 90

Water indUstrY aLLianCe

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ot for profit industry body, the Water Industry Alliance (WIA), has a 15 year track record in the water industry, and they are well versed in the importance of continued growth to build on the industry’s potential and reputation. As an industry body, the WIA drives growth and innovation through its tireless work with all of its stakeholders and its dedicated membership base. Each year, in aid of recognising the companies who are innovating and working towards the growth of the industry, the WIA hosts an annual Award ceremony, the WIA Smart Water Awards. The Award ceremony recognises and celebrates WIA members who demonstrate excellence in expertise in their field. Members are recognised across six Award categories which reflect the diversity and strength of the expertise of WIA members in the South Australian water industry. At the 2013 Smart Water Awards, along with presenting six awards and three high commendations, the WIA celebrated a decade of water industry excellence – with the tenth year of Awards. During that time there has been; 40 generous Awards sponsors, more than 2000 attendees and 61 successful companies who have received one or more of the WIA’s prestigious industry Awards. Andy Roberts, Water Industry Alliance Chief Executive Officer said that like each year before, the 2013 winners represent the exceptional quality of businesses and organisations operating within the water industry in South Australia. “The industry’s reputation is already strong and it continues to grow, this is underpinned by the outstanding work and achievements of our members.” said Mr Roberts.
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The 2013 independent judging panel noted that this year’s entries captured their imaginations. The panel included; Lee Morgan, Manager Remote Operations (Southern NT) Power and Water Corporation, Katie Hulmes, Group Environmental Specialist at OZ minerals and Richard Hopkins, CEO, International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management. This year’s winners spanned the water industry and showcased organisations pushing boundaries, breaking new ground and making a major contribution to the water industry with an innovative approach to a project, product or service, alliance, new market, business growth, policy, or research and development. The 2013 Smart Water Award Winners: Smart Water Irrigation & Use Award Philmac Australia Pty Ltd were recognised for their innovative and precise approach to irrigation and use that contributes to water efficiency. They developed a product designed specifically to keep golf courses green across the United States. The product, specifically designed polyethylene pipe fittings for US golf courses, is the only type of its kind available to the US market, and the Award win reflects Philmac’s supply of more than 18,000 unique fittings for US irrigation applications. The fittings have been supplied to golf courses in Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and Indiana. Smart Water Resource Management Award The City of Charles Sturt were awarded for their demonstration of expertise in innovation and engagement, for their project Waterproofing the West – Stage One. The City of Charles Sturt is creating the first stage of a region wide system that harvests, treats and stores

stormwater and distributes recycled stormwater through western Adelaide. The project will harvest urban stormwater, store it using Aquifer Storage and Recovery Systems and use it to substitute up to 2,000 ML/annum of current demands. The Stage One project is targeted to harvest up to 2400 ML/a. Smart Water Resource Management Award – High Commendation Water Data Services and the Adelaide Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Board (AMLRNRM) were awarded a High Commendation for their efforts to improve and change the management of our water resources. The Award recognised the joint effort between the State Government and its support for the private sector and in particular the significant investment the AMLRNRM Board has made in monitoring our water resources and the vision that it has for the dissemination of water resource information. Water Data Services and the AMLRNRM Boards entry was for their Water Information Management System, where they used WaterBase to centralise significant expenditure in water resource monitoring. WaterBase, along with the expertise at WDS provides the water industry with the tools to integrate time series data and its metadata from many different sources and to convert Data-toKnowledge. Smart Water Leadership Award Sinclair Knight Merz and the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training were recognised for their development of the Australian Groundwater Modelling Guidelines. The Guidelines are intended to provide a national perspective and to include all types of groundwater models and modelling approaches. They have proven to be useful in providing an insight into