Cape Town Water Crisis

[HannesS]

Probleem is dit is bewys dat met beurt water tap mense kanne en baddens vol terwyl hulle kan en mense mors eintlik meer water met beurtkrag water

Wel verminder die druk dan soos WillemT voorstel om te voorkom dat mense hulle beurte misbruik.

Maar lyne staan vir water gaan nie werk nie, jy gaan die hele water netwerk opneuk.

[Elders]

We used a porta-potti when touring .... Surely one way to save a LOT of water !!


Will admit that I have considered buying a PP ..... but somehow it just feels like "storing up baked beans" .....

Okay so here goes the next project ....


Very minor re-routing of the waste lines at the back of the house (just the shower, bath and washing machine), into a small sump with a submersible pump. This delivers the water into a tank on a roof behind the house, from here it will supply the toilets via gravity feed.


should result in significant water saving.



Question for those that already use grey water - what are the best methods to limit odours ?

[Paul Dold]

I dont use grey water but as part of water saving I use JIK to combat odours.

[100bedonderd]

To wat point can you mix sea water with freshwater

[SBSP]

Maybe a silly question but what happens to the electricity generators ? Dont they use steam ? Or is it in a closed loop system ?

[Chris Stoffel]

Maybe a silly question but what happens to the electricity generators ? Dont they use steam ? Or is it in a closed loop system ?

We don't have electricity generators in the Cape that work with coal and steam. Koeberg is a closed system and Steenbras work with water. Yes?

[WillemT]

Okay so here goes the next project ....


Very minor re-routing of the waste lines at the back of the house (just the shower, bath and washing machine), into a small sump with a submersible pump. This delivers the water into a tank on a roof behind the house, from here it will supply the toilets via gravity feed.


should result in significant water saving.



Question for those that already use grey water - what are the best methods to limit odours ?

Leave the washing machine water would be my recommendation. It’s a lot dirtier than shower and bath water.

Put a chlorine tablet in the tank.
And then drain the water every 12 to 24 hours. Determine what time would be best to drain. Greywater becomes not so lekker after 12 to 24 hours of standing.

[divanvanderwatt]

I just read in our washing machine booklet - the front loader can use up to 50 liters of water per cycle

Remember those camping washing machines - think it was called Sputnik or something?

[Gustav Jimny]

Question for those that already use grey water - what are the best methods to limit odours ?

Two capfulls of Dettol into my bath.
Bath water afterwards pumped into 20 liter drums, used for flushing, doing the dishes, and wash cycle for laundry.
Used dish water still goes down the sewer.
Laundry wash cycle not kept, but mostly used to flush the toilet after my morning constitutional, and to do last nights dishes.
Anything over from that goes onto the back lawn, to percolate down for my wellpoint !
Laundry rinse water kept for flushing during the week, if it goes off, goes onto the lawn.
And now recently fitted a 2200l JoJo for rain water, intending to get a another two for the wellpoint water, to give it time for the iron to settle down.
So, on average my daily consumption of municipal water is below 50l anyway.

[MrTolbos]

I live in PE and we’re apparently not far behind CPT regarding a water crisis. We bought a 100 liter plastic wash basin and 8 plastic buckets. We placed the 100 liter wash basin in the shower, we stand in the basin while showering and it collects 99% of the shower water.

We scoop the water up with the buckets and flush the toilets with that. The water that’s left over the next morning goes onto the lawn and plants, however there’s mostly only 1 bucket of grey water left. You really don’t need to spend a lot of money on repiping and automating your grey water system. Keep things simple, it’s cheaper and less things to break. We even rolled out the system to the guest bathroom when ever we have a couple of friends over.


Everyone loves the idea and a lot of our friends have started doing the same. There’s zero smell to this system.

Next project is to catch up the washing machine water... We also have the capacity to store 25,000 liter of rainwater but it’s not raining enough to even come close to be able to switch off the municipal water

[serieslr]

Okay so here goes the next project ....


Very minor re-routing of the waste lines at the back of the house (just the shower, bath and washing machine), into a small sump with a submersible pump. This delivers the water into a tank on a roof behind the house, from here it will supply the toilets via gravity feed.


should result in significant water saving.



Question for those that already use grey water - what are the best methods to limit odours ?

I have a manual pool floater in a 1000l slimline. Add two hth blocks to it set on smallest opening last about a month.

Have been running like that for a few months and the toilet water is clear but soapy.

Also add those blue blocks to the toilet tanks helps as well. Did this in the beginning.

But I do pump my water through a normal pool sand filter before going into the storage tank. However you have add the chlorine to get the smell away

[Sawdust]

Two capfulls of Dettol into my bath.
Bath water afterwards pumped into 20 liter drums, used for flushing, doing the dishes, and wash cycle for laundry.
Used dish water still goes down the sewer.
Laundry wash cycle not kept, but mostly used to flush the toilet after my morning constitutional, and to do last nights dishes.
Anything over from that goes onto the back lawn, to percolate down for my wellpoint !
Laundry rinse water kept for flushing during the week, if it goes off, goes onto the lawn.
And now recently fitted a 2200l JoJo for rain water, intending to get a another two for the wellpoint water, to give it time for the iron to settle down.
So, on average my daily consumption of municipal water is below 50l anyway.

Please don't ever invite me for dinner!

[Nerd]

Installed the black bag hot water camp thing in the back on a strong enough shelve. Fill it up to the brim with well point water and me and the kids get along just fine with this. Will fine tune this to be more robust with a stronger head mount soon.

The kids love it and bath time is now fun time as well, unless it rains hopefully, soon, please, I will make my kids bath again for rain.

[divanvanderwatt]

Installed the black bag hot water camp thing in the back on a strong enough shelve. Fill it up to the brim with well point water and me and the kids get along just fine with this. Will fine tune this to be more robust with a stronger head mount soon.

The kids love it and bath time is now fun time as well, unless it rains hopefully, soon, please, I will make my kids bath again for rain.

This is very cool! How long does the water in the bag stay warm for?

[Nerd]

This is very cool! How long does the water in the bag stay warm for?

Long enough at the moment to shower around five for the kids and I shower an hour later. Showered after gym last Wednesday at 19:30. Was HOT, added cold water.
Will add another one soon so SWAMBO can join. Or paint some jerrycans black and use that instead.

[Oppies3800]

Long enough at the moment to shower around five for the kids and I shower an hour later. Showered after gym last Wednesday at 19:30. Was HOT, added cold water.
Will add another one soon so SWAMBO can join. Or paint some jerrycans black and use that instead.

This sounds like another little one might be joining soon 😂🤣

[CornelisVoigt]

Dis verbasend hoe vinnig mens water vanaf die dak kan opvang met watertenks. Maar ek hoor daar is n groot waglys vir die 5000liter tenks. Met n drukpompie kan n hele huis uit tenks water kry. Op die plase gebruik baie boere reënwater vir huis gebruik en drinkwater. Sonder enige duur filtreerders.

[Chris Stoffel]

My plek is te klein vir die groot watertenks. Maar ons komplex het goeie well point water. Ek hoor die waterpunte gaan reg oorkant my komplex wees. 159m can my voordeur af.

[Nitebob]

Okay so here goes the next project ....


Very minor re-routing of the waste lines at the back of the house (just the shower, bath and washing machine), into a small sump with a submersible pump. This delivers the water into a tank on a roof behind the house, from here it will supply the toilets via gravity feed.


should result in significant water saving.



Question for those that already use grey water - what are the best methods to limit odours ?

I was contemplating this but was told by greywater installers this cannot work as the soapiness affects the seal on the toilet (make it snotty) and then it will start dripping...

[Sunray]

Ja, Cornielus, maar eers moet dit reen