The Warragamba Dam Essay

Submitted By PatonElla
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Warragamba Dam

Warragamba Dam is the largest concrete dam in Australia and one of the largest domestic water supply dams in the world. Lake Burragorang, which is formed behind Warragamba Dam, is around four times the size of Sydney Harbor. To build the dam, three million tones of concrete were placed across the Warragamba River in a series of large, interlocking blocks. The Sydney catchment Authority manages a total of 21 storage dams, holding over 2.5 million Megalitres of water. Water for these storages is collected from five catchment area’s, occupying 16,000 square kilometers. The Warragamba catchment supplies Sydney’s most important source of water. Completed in 1960 Warragamba dam holds about four times more water than Sydney harbor accounts for 80 per cent of the Region’s available water supply.

A catchment is an area where water is collected by the natural landscape. In a catchment, all rain and run off water eventually flows to a creek, river, lake or ocean, or into the ground system. Natural and human systems, such as rivers bushland, farms, Industry, homes, plants, animals and people can exist alongside one another in catchment. The Sydney catchment Authority protects five catchment areas, which provide water to greater Sydney and local communities they are, Warragamba catchment, Upper nepean catchment, Woronora Catchment, Shoalhaven Catchment, Blue mountains catchment. The catchments occupy about 16,000 square kilometres in Total. Located about 65 kilometres west of Sydney in a narrow gorge on the Warragamba rive. Australia is one of the driest inhabited continents on earth. Water has been vital to the survival and success of Sydney since the first days of the new colony. The need to ensure a reliable water supply through times of drought and unreliable seasonal rainfall has driven the development of several complex and innovative water supply schemes. The Warragamba River offered two important advantages as a site for a major dam. Firstly it had a large catchment area and secondly the river flowed through a long narrow. Gorge. A comparatively tall and narrow dam capable of impounding a vast amount of water could be built. Warragamba dam supplies bulk water to three water filtrations plants where it is filtered and distributed to people living in Sydney and the lower Blue Mountains. The best Quality water is selected and drawn through screens at three outlets in the upstream face of the dam. After flowing by Gravity to the valbue house, two pipelines feed the raw water to the prospect water filtration plants at Warragamba and Orchard Hills. The filtered water is then