Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 17 April 2010

Municipalities may soon learn to utilise water of inferior quality for uses such as flushing the toilet in an effort to save drinking water. For example, irrigation in South Africa uses approximately 54% of the total freshwater demand followed by another major user, toilet flushing. Domestic toilet flushing consumes between 50 and 70% of a household’s total drinking water supply.

Grey-water from showers, baths, hand basins, laundry tubs and washing machines can provide a solution to our water scarcity challenges. A joint pilot study, conducted by the Universities of Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg (UJ) and Cape Town (UCT), and funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC), is proving that the use of grey-water can be an effective way of saving our high quality water.

A dual grey- and drinking water reticulation system is a system consisting of separate pipes that supply grey-water (for only toilet flushing in this project) and drinking water, respectively, to the end user. This is the first dual grey- and drinking water reticulation system for high-density urban buildings currently piloted in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Hillman Block) at WITS, collects its grey-water from 13 hand-basins and conveys it to a 200 litre tank [installed by Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems - see Testimonial by Professor Adesola Ilemobade]. Continue reading Water Rhapsody Conservation Systems could save SA’s high quality water