What you should know about greywater systems
What you should know about greywater systems
While Durban might not be in the same dire straights as drought-stricken Cape Town but the truth is South Africa is a water scarce country as anyone who lived through the droughts in the 80s can well attest to.
Rainfall patterns have become unpredictable at best and simply non-existent in some cases, with both the traditional wet and dry seasons passing without any rain in catchment areas.
While access to running water is often taken for granted by urban and peri-urban dwellers, the lived reality of having to carry water from a central tap to their homes is the experience of many in informal settlements. South Africa has some of the best quality water in the world coming straight out of taps for drinking, and with the necessity of saving water, many more people than ever before have opened their eyes to the reality that unless they change their practices, they will be literally flushing clean drinking water down toilets.
Necessity it is said, is the mother of invention. South Africa has realised the need to reuse and recycle waste-water and today, thanks to the water shortage, many more people are aware of alternative means of using water which doesn’t result in as much waste. One of those is the use of so-called greywater to do things that require water which doesn’t have to be of the drinkable quality (potable). Using methods to cut back on potable water use in the home can make a huge difference in the cost of living.
What is grey water?
Grey water is the waste-water generated from baths, showers, hand washbasins, and laundry water which can be “harvested” either by a greywater plumbing system or simply collected in buckets or basins. Greywater may contain traces of dirt, food, grease, hair, and certain household cleaning products but does not come into contact with faeces, either from the toilet or from washing babies’ nappies. It can be used for many things but sometimes needs to be treated first depending on what is to be used for.
With proper treatment, greywater can be used as water for laundry and toilet flushing, and also irrigation of plants, both food and non-food producing plants. It is important though to realise that greywater left in collection tanks can post a danger to small children and pets.
It also can turn rancid if untreated and start to smell bad if it isn’t used quickly enough. Improper management of grey water could lead to odour, pest, or pathogen issues, so it’s important to do your homework before putting in any sort of grey water system and perhaps consult an expert for advice on how to use grey water in your home safely.
Catching warm-up water
One great way of putting potentially wasted water to work, without worrying about health or safety from contaminants, is by capturing and using ‘warm-up’ water. Warm-up water is all that water that many people used to allow to go down the drain while waiting for the hot water to reach the shower head. While most people in South Africa, due to increased awareness of water shortages have stopped doing this, in times of plenty they might well revert to what is really a wasteful and very silly habit.
To capture and use warm-up water, simply put a bucket or large bowl under the tap when you turn on the hot water, move it out of the way when the water is hot. That water can be used without treatment to water house or garden plants, as it’s just as clean as the rest of the tap water that gets used for those tasks.
Blackwater
Kitchen sink and dishwashing machine waste-water is not collected and falls into a category called “black water” which is really only suitable for flushing toilets in a closed system where there is no danger of it contaminating the pipes that reticulate the main water supply.
While it might be tempting to fill the cistern of the toilet with water collected from washing up, there is a danger, even if one switches off the tap on the pipe supplying water from the main supply, that the water might be contaminated in that pipe.
If you are using grey or black water you have collected in containers to flush your toilet, it is important that you do so by pouring it into the bowl of the toilet and not into the cistern.
Harvesting rainwater
A truth that many people fail to realise is that every day it rains, we are wasting water, and money. A rainwater harvesting system can be built in stages to suit your cash flow. Firstly, setting up tanks to harvest the rainwater, and then later upgrading to be able to treat the rainwater for domestic use. Storing any amount of water is good insurance against dry spells when the stored rainwater can be used to water the garden, or even for washing.
The average household is adequately covered by the installation of two above ground 5000 Litre tanks but every drop counts as the well-known slogan tells us.
If you want to, there are experts in rainwater harvesting that can set up a system which uses specially designed filters to clean water collected from gutters and separates the waste from the clean water which can then be directed to the household via a pumping system.
