Greenbank State School, on the outskirts of Brisbane, has introduced an on-site wastewater treatment system developed by a CQU researcher in Rockhampton.

The KEWT (Kele Effluent and Wastewater Treatment System) system, developed by Ben Kele and commercialised by GBG Project Management Pty Ltd, will treat and reuse the wastewater from over 1000 students and staff at a site cost of $340,000. Not bad considering the school has been paying $80,000 a year to pump out all of its sewage.

The site will have remote monitoring and will provide recycled water for oval irrigation and a cabinet timber plantation.

The site was recently opened by the Minister for Education Rod Welford.

The system will also be used an educational tool for students at the school to learn about the water cycle and sustainable technologies. It will also be used as a site for Mr Kele’s PhD research.

KEWT is a unique system for the treatment of wastewater and effluent. It uses a mixture of biological treatment systems and reuses effluent through a self-contained recirculatory form of sub-surface irrigation.

Mr Kele is currently working on a number of other projects including sustainable housing developments, holistic water management frameworks for local government, and biological filtration projects.

Photo above: (L-R) Ben Kele, Rod Welford (Minister for Education), Hajnal Ban (Beaudesert Shire Council), Vanessa Bull (Beaudesert Shire Council), Don Peterson (Beaudesert Shire Council), John Mickel (Minister for Energy and the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy) with some of the students from the Year 4 Environment Class of the Greenbank State School.

Photo left: Ben Kele speaks at the opening of the KEWT system at Greenbank State School.