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dam-l Water saving device in SA/LS
>From The Cape Argus:
New system saves water without changing lifestyle
4/4/1997
You can halve your domestic water consumption without changing your lifestyle, promises Jeremy Taylor of Pinelands.
Trading as Water Rhapsody, Mr Taylor has invented systems of water conservation that re-use household water.
These include a manual flushing device for toilets, a kit for directing household water into the garden, and a method of automatically filling swimming pools with rain water.
A former city councillor who says he has devoted all his resources to water conservation, Mr Taylor has installed his systems in the homes of Kader Asmal, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry; Mike Bruton, head of the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town; Guy Preston, programme leader of the National Water Conservation Campaign; and Bryan Davies, director of the Fresh Water Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, among others.
Mr Taylor is one of several South Africans marketing innovative and responsible ways to maximise water's potential in a drought-prone country.
"As a nation we can either be water wise, or face restrictions," he says.
"A drought in Cape Town now would leave us with only an intermittent supply of water from taps that could be switched off for up to 12 hours a day."
He says his system is an affordable way to save water.
"If you reduce your water consumption by R300 a month - without cutting down on the number of baths you take and by still watering your garden daily - you will have paid for your Rhapsody within nine months. After that you're laughing all the way to the bank, and you're conserving water."
Two Oceans Aquarium Professor Bruton says his family's decision to install a Water Rhapsody unit to re-use household water has enhanced rather than restricted their lifestyle.
"It is satisfying to know you're living within your resources instead of beyond them," Professor Bruton said.
He adds that money saved can add up to thousands of rands over a period of years. "Water savings mean less water has to be taken out of rivers and lakes.
"If everyone were to reduce their water consumption, it wouldn't be necessary to build further dams and canals and intercatchment connections, which have a very detrimental effect on the natural rivers and plant and animal life within the rivers. "If you use less water you save electricity and probably finally will reduce your rates because you won't have the expense of major capital works such as dams. He said the Rhapsody system allowed households to have wetter gardens and lusher lawns.
"We have water from hand basins and baths going to a filter device and a pump chamber sunk into the ground. A submersible pump inside the chamber forces this water to a tank on the roof, from where it runs by gravity into the cisterns of the toilets."
Water from the second bathroom's hand basin and bath, and also from the washing machine, goes through a similar filter to another unit which pumps it directly on to the garden.
The system also catches rain water from the roof and distributes it to the swimming pool and the garden.
All Material © copyright Independent Newspapers 1997.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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