City of Karratha – leading with breakthrough water savings

Overview 

The City of Karratha is a fast-growing local government in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, managing high-demand assets across a challenging climate. With extreme heat, high evaporation rates, industrial activity and strong population growth, efficient water use is critical to maintaining essential services and community facilities.

As a Gold-endorsed participant in the Waterwise Council Program, the City of Karratha has taken a strategic, data-led approach to water management. By upgrading ageing infrastructure, introducing smart monitoring technology and improving building and maintenance systems, the City has delivered significant reductions in water use, costs and operational risk.

These improvements demonstrate how targeted investment and modern technology can deliver strong water savings, even in some of the most demanding operating conditions in the state.

Key initiatives 

Airport water infrastructure upgrades:

• Implemented a seven-stage program to replace ageing water mains and branch lines at Karratha Airport
• Completed stages 1 to 5, with stage 6 under way and stage 7 scheduled for completion by 2026
• Invested nearly $5 million to date while keeping the airport fully operational throughout construction
• Achieved major reductions in water loss from chronic leaks

Smart IoT metering and central monitoring:

• Installed LoRaWAN wireless smart meters across airport tenancies and key facilities
• Enabled real-time monitoring, accurate billing and rapid leak detection
• Eliminated manual meter reads, improving efficiency and reducing work health and safety risks
• Rolled out more than 40 smart meters across priority sites

Karratha Leisureplex building management improvements:

• Installed a new building management system with multiple submeters
• Added submetering to the make-up water tank to reduce manual inspections
• Repaired leaking balance tanks and replaced faulty float valves
• Improved visibility of water use across aquatic and leisure facilities

Water resource recovery and emissions reduction:

• Included wastewater emissions within the City’s corporate emissions inventory
• Upgraded the airport water resource recovery facility from a membrane bioreactor to a lower-energy sequencing batch reactor system
• Enabled greater reuse of treated water for irrigation, toilets and wash-down activities
• Reduced operational emissions while supporting recycled water use

How it was done 

The City of Karratha focused on addressing the root causes of water loss and inefficiency. Ageing assets were prioritised for replacement, while smart technology was used to provide real-time insights into water use across large, complex sites.

At Karratha Airport, a staged approach allowed critical pipe replacements to occur without disrupting operations. Smart meters provided immediate visibility of abnormal water use, supporting faster responses to leaks and faults.

At the Leisureplex, improved metering and building management systems replaced labour-intensive manual checks and revealed opportunities to reduce losses from undetected leaks. Across the organisation, better data empowered teams to target maintenance efforts where they would deliver the greatest benefit.

By aligning infrastructure upgrades with operational improvements and long-term planning, the City embedded water efficiency into everyday asset management.

What’s next

The City of Karratha will continue building on this work, with a focus on completing stages 6 and 7 of the airport pipeline upgrades by 2026. Plans are also in place to expand IoT metering across additional City sites and continue optimising the Leisureplex building management system.

Further priorities include progressing recycled water upgrades across parks and irrigation networks, maintaining momentum toward net zero emissions by 2050, and continuing to embed waterwise decision-making across all major assets.

Through innovation, smart investment and a commitment to continuous improvement, the City of Karratha is setting a strong example for water efficiency in regional Western Australia.

Learn more about the program

Together with local governments, we're helping create thriving and waterwise communities across Western Australia. Learn more about the Waterwise Council Program and the councils leading the way.