Durban – A Durban man has installed rainwater-gathering equipment at his home that allows him to collect a maximum of about 60 000 litres of water.
Frank Edwards, who lives on the Berea, said most of the water was used for gardening.
He has installed a comprehensive system with five tankers that hold about 5 000 litres of water each, and includes the use of gutters and purifiers.
There is also a 2m deep pond that can hold about 35 000 litres of water.
He said rainwater collection would save future generations as supplied water would not always be available.
“I work with gardens and I am a part-time permaculturalist. It is important that we ask the question: What are we doing to safeguard the future of our generation?"
“We must find more sustainable ways of living – saving rainwater is part of that. When you are saving rainwater, you can open the tap and the water is there.”
Edwards said he started the process to save water about six years ago: “I put in the system myself with one or two guys; building the pond took me and another man about eight months.”
The rainwater plan started with a catchment tank at the back of his house.
It pumps the water into another tank on higher ground which allows gravity to do its work when the water is pumped to showers.
There are now four other tanks that feed off the main first tank when it is full.
Frank Edwards pours fresh drinking water from a tap connected to his rainwater system. The water goes through four purifiers. Picture: Zanele Zulu
“There is a purifying system inside the house. The water that goes to the garden goes through two purifiers and the water for drinking – pumped into a tap in front of the house – goes through four purifiers,” he said.
“This property has three other roofs and I have installed gutters so the rainfall is collected through the gutters and funnelled into the pond.”
Edwards said only the outbuilding of his home functioned wholly on rainwater.
“People should be able to use the rainwater that is falling on their property, they should have segmental paving so that the water does not run off into the street,” he said.
Vanessa Meintjies, who is also a permaculturalist and works with Edwards, said people could use grey water – which had been used for showering or washing dishes – after filtering for purposes like gardening.
Esteni van Niekerk of Durban North said she was in the process of putting rainwater collecting systems in her house. She is being advised by Meintjies on the process.
“It started off with the water pressure being so bad. We did not want to wake up in the morning with spitting pipes, so we started the process, but we have decided to extend it.”
She said they would put about four Jojo tanks on the property and these would be connected to the main house.
Only drinking water would come from the municipal supply.