The Waterless Wok: Saving Water in Asian Restaurants
Between 2005 to 2009, ECCNSW utilised a range of complementary education strategies to help Asian restaurant owners and staff to reduce their water usage. With support from the NSW Government Climate Change Fund, the project aimed for a 50% reduction in annual water use of a restaurantโs kitchen by purchasing and installing a โwaterlessโ wok stove. The program promoted both the economic and environmental benefits of using less water in Asian style cooking.
The Impact
I can visually see we are saving water. It makes you feel good. We can regulate how much we are saving. The stove absorbs the heat and we have a nice dry wok. We are fantastically happy with it. We wonโt be going back to the old stove any time soon.
Program Participant
The Saving Water in Asian Restaurants program provided multilingual information on actions that can be taken to reduce water use in kitchens and offered a subsidy to restaurant owners as an incentive for the purchase and installation of โwaterless wokโ stoves.
The project engaged 848 Asian style restaurants across the Sydney, Central Coast and Illawarra regions. In total, 169 restaurants joined the project, installing a total of 275 waterless wok stoves in their restaurants.
In total, the project resulted in an estimated annual water saving of 212 million litres per year for all stoves measured, with restaurants reducing their water consumption by 82% on average.
