Rainwater Harvesting in South Africa is fast becoming more popular than Solar Geysers. Water demand in South Africa,will outstrip supply by 2025. It is estimated that Gauteng will have water outages by 2016 and Cape Town as soon as 2013.
Very little has been done by the Department of Water Affairs to encourage citizens to harvest rainwater. This is primarily due to the loss in revenue for the department,as they sell less water to citizens who harvest rainwater from their roofs. As water conservationists,this is one of the biggest challenges we face on a daily basis.
The traditional way of harvesting rainwater was achieved by placing a water tank underneath a down pipe and carrying the water into the building with buckets. As rainwater harvesting technology improved of the recent years,it is now possible to received filtered rainwater at any outlet in your house,at the same pressure you would receive municipal water. Therfore,the need to carry buckets of water to where you’d like to use it,are completely eliminated.
The possibility in excluding outlets in your house from receiving rainwater as also an option,should you wish not to drink rainwater. Rainwater can be used for all household purposes,i.e. irrigation,refilling your pool,flushing your toilets,car washing,replacing municipal water etc.
Water tanks also no longer need to stand underneath the closest down pipe. The tanks can be neathy hidden away in a dark corner in the garden or where you’d ideally like the tanks to be positioned.
Municipal water can furthermore be introduced as a backup supply,ensuring you will always use harvested rainwater first,before using municipal water. With such a system,you will be guaranteed of water and you’ll only use municipal water if there is not enough rainwater in your tanks to satisfy demand.
The amount of rainwater than can be harvested from a roof,is determined by the roof area and roof type (metal or tile). To gain a better understanding of this,please refer to question 3 under Rainwater Harvesting FAQ. The roof catchment area will also determine the ideal number of tanks required to optimise the system fully.
Rainwater Harvesting is the only long term sustainable solution to South Africa’s water shortage. To put this into perspective,if every Cape Town household took the initiative to install a water tank,it will provide Cape Town with an additional 200,000,000,000 liters (200 million kiloliters) of water per year,without building a single dam.
Water-Recycle is committed to addressing the water shortage that will have an impact on all forms of life in the next few years. Without the continuous support of our ever growing customer base,our vision would not be achieved.
Installing Rainwater Harvesting Systems is not a business to us. It’s a way of life to ensure we all have water in the years to come…
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