Rainwater Harvesting

Although close to 71% of our planet’s surface is covered by water, not all of it is suitable for use. The water in the oceans and seas cannot be used as drinking water and little of it can be utilised for other purposes. The oceans hold 97.5% of all of the water on our “blue” planet. Although water can be found in many places beyond the oceans such as the atmosphere (in the form of water vapour), rivers, lakes, glaciers, aquifers, and organisms. However, 97.5% of this water is salt water.

Depicting these numbers graphically tells a worrying story. As a result of a growing demand, there is an increasing shortage of water that is good for drinking or home and industrial use. For this reason, why do we use perfectly good quality drinking water for our industrial processes, irrigation and toilet flushing?

Our finite water sources need to be stretched, re-used, and ultimately better managed. We should also start managing the waste we generate much better.

Water scarcity is not going to go away – in fact it is getting worse. With a growing global population, the demand for potable water increases daily. In 1975, water scarcity was limited to a small number of countries in North Africa, Europe and the Middle-East. By 2000 water scarcity had spread to many large and densely populated countries in Asia. In South Africa, we transitioned from a water stressed country to a water scarce country, and are currently the 30th driest country in the world. Predictions are, that by 2025, South Africa will form part of the “extreme scarcity” category.

Even though rainfall may be unpredictable and of varying amounts, the benefit of having stored capacity available is immense.  It is a source of water that will supplement your existing water sources, and a source that must be utilised more effectively – not just to our own advantage, but also to the advantage of our infrastructure, economy and the environment.

Greywater Harvesting for re-use as Irrigation

This device receives water normally discarded by a swimming pool backwash process. This water is toxic to plants, especially water from salt-water pools, and unwanted in storm water drains. The kit consists of a water chamber into which you add a little flocculent before backwashing. We supply the flocculent.

After 24 hours, this water can be safely returned to the pool.