Partnerships are the foundation of our Engineering on Country (EoC) water program in Australia. Community expertise, financial support and pro-bono technical support are critical to the success of the program. Recently, our corporate partners and supporters have been assisting Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) with the next phase of the program, which will establish a climate-resilient rainwater harvesting system for the local Lama Lama community in Port Stewart – one that the Lama Lama people can own and maintain in the long term.
For the Lama Lama community of Port Stewart in Far North Queensland, a lack of clean drinking water has been a significant challenge for decades. It limits the community’s opportunity to live on, and care for, Country, especially during the dry season when the community can double in size.
The Port Stewart community is remote, with the nearest regional centre being an eight-hour drive that is only accessible by four-wheel drive in the dry season. The community cannot be easily accessed during the wet season, which spans nearly half the year. Purchasing water from the nearest town, Coen, is prohibitively expensive and time consuming.
Water collected from a tap in Cape York, Queensland.
EWB has been working with the community to address this problem for over a decade. In recent years, EWB has tested and monitored river water from the nearby Stewart River to determine its suitability for non-drinking usage. However, the unpredictable water flow rates and high metal contaminants meant another solution was necessary: rainwater harvesting.
EWB is now working with the local community, as well as corporate partners and supporters, to establish a means to collect and store rainwater during the wet season so that it will last throughout a significant part of the dry season.
Off-grid solutions for sustainable water collection
EWB has a longstanding relationship with the Lama Lama Traditional Owners and Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC), a local homelands-based not-for-profit organisation. Over the years, EWB has worked closely with YAC and the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) to improve the water supply for the community. This has included river water intake investigations and improvements, water quality testing and repairs to old water lines damaged by bushfires.
Through ongoing consultation and co-design community workshops over the past year, EWB, Lama Lama Elders and CfAT agreed on a path forward to improve clean water access to the community. This involves augmenting existing river water supplies suitable for non-drinking usage with rainwater catchment tanks, storage and filtration infrastructure.
This solution will allow the community to collect and store clean drinking water during the wet season (approximately November to March) for use through to a significant part of the dry season. The rainwater system will be augmented by the lower-quality river water. The design is low power and self sufficient, using a combination of solar power and gravity. Since the community is off grid, and depending on resource availability, the water supply may be expanded further throughout the town as the project develops.
Utilising industry expertise and financial support
Given the remoteness of Port Stewart, this project has presented challenges only surmountable with the generous assistance of EWB’s partners and funders who have provided financial support and critical pro-bono technical expertise.
To establish the infrastructure for the rainwater harvesting system, EWB has drawn upon the expertise of longstanding EWB corporate partner and global design and engineering collective, Arup. Arup staff have provided pro-bono engineering support to this project since 2015. Recently, they have provided EWB with technical assistance for the procurement and construction of the rainwater harvesting system.
EWB, YAC, CfAT and Arup in Gimuy (Cairns) in October 2023 to discuss the Port Stewart water supply project, feedback and next steps.
Construction of the system has been financially supported by global engineering and management consultancy, BMT, through their annual philanthropic program (BMT Giveback) and mining and infrastructure equipment supplier, Epiroc. This financial support has enabled EWB to cover various operational costs essential to the project’s success, including facilitation of co-design workshops with the community and the construction of the rainwater harvesting system. Material costs for items such as the system’s pump, solar power supply and filtration unit have been funded by the Yaru Foundation, the philanthropic arm of social enterprise Yaru Water.
While installing the infrastructure is a critical first step, it is only as good as the enabling system that accompanies it. For a sustainable, long-term solution, the community needs to be properly trained, equipped and supported to test, maintain and manage their own water system well into the future.
Thanks to the generous support of aerospace manufacturer Airbus, EWB has been co-designing a water management plan and water quality testing program with the community. Once the system is installed, community members will receive training to operate it safely. EWB will also deliver workshops with the broader community to ensure they have the knowledge to safely operate and maintain the system for years to come.
To support the success of community water management for the rainwater harvesting system, BMT employees have offered in-kind technical support, which includes assistance with water quality testing efforts and the provision of community outreach materials and educational resources to guide local water management practices.
Building trust and nurturing respectful relationships with communities are essential to design the right solution – they also take time. Generous, ongoing financial support from Bindy and David Koadlow since 2012 has ensured the EoC water program has a stable financial foundation, in turn enabling long-term planning and an investment in EWB staff and our relationship with the Lama Lama community. This project would not have been possible without Bindy and David Koadlow’s generous financial support.
A future with clean water
With the wet season over, the new rainwater catchment system will be installed in the coming months. Following the installation, the team will focus on exploring alternative surface water and groundwater sources to supplement the rainwater harvesting system.
EWB would like to extend a thank you to the YAC for their partnership; two-way knowledge sharing is the base of our work on Country and crucial for place-appropriate solutions. We would especially like to thank Airbus, Arup, BMT, Bindy and David Koadlow, CfAT, Epiroc and Yaru Foundation who are helping enable the next phase of this project that will ensure access to clean water for the Lama Lama community throughout the dry season. Without their support, this work would simply not be possible.
With your support, we can continue to work with remote Indigenous communities across Australia to ensure they have access to clean water year-round. If your organisation would like to amplify the impact of this program, please contact our partnerships team at partnerships@ewb.org.au to discuss how you can work alongside EWB.
EWB’s Engineering on Country water program is generously supported by Airbus, Bindy and David Koadlow, BMT, Epiroc and Yaru Foundation with pro-bono technical support by Arup and BMT.
Feature image caption: Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) rangers in Port Stewart, Queensland.