Mawson water supply has certainly evolved over time. In the early days, plumbers worked over a makeshift gantry that supported heated pipework, leading down 7m to a melt cavity in the ice, where the station's water was produced. The water from the melt cavity is pumped back to a tank house that stores water in three 90,000 litre tanks. These tanks were installed many years ago and have started to rust quite badly on the inside. One of the tanks was replaced last season with a brand new round galvanised tank, with an inner liner to prevent the tank from rusting. The tank was filled with clean Antarctic water from the melt bell, and just recently the plumbers were able to turn this tank online for station use. The rusty stain in the toilet bowls might go away now.
Just wanted to give a big shout out to those who were involved in getting tank 3 installed in the 2019-20 season. There is a huge amount of planning and practical work to get anything on this scale installed in Antarctica and we now get to benefit from your hard work, so thank you very much.
Billy Merrick
Mawson plumber
