A Capetonians Guide to Surviving The #WaterCrisis
How you can get through this water crisis unscathed and a little more home tech savvy.
30 January 2018/ Brandon Lee Westraat
For all of us in the world, we have two things on our mind: Our New favorite series and whats for supper. But for us in cape town, there is a third thing that is taking precedence over all the other thoughts and stresses going through our mind and that this stupid drought. Yes things are getting serious and people are getting scared but before you push that granny out of the way to get the last two-liter bottle of water, check out these water saving gadgets and tips that could help that stress level drop a bit.
One of the easiest and simplest ways to reduce your household water consumption is to add aerators to your taps and showers. This Is one for those who would love to spend more than 90 seconds in the shower. These aerators and filters and extremely inexpensive and are truly worth it. You can pick up these small aerators and filters at any Builders or any hardware store and if you want to buy it online, then check out www.watersaving.co.za/store.
Another gadget we have a love-hate relationship with is the water pebble.You place this device in your shower and it will automatically start the timing sequence once the water starts. This little annoying but super helpful device will help you keep your showers short and efficient. Its amazing to couple this with an aerator installed in your shower to push that 90-second shower to a 4 min shower. The smart water pebble will flash red for 3 min before turning amber and then red again, so it rounds off to a decent 4 min shower allowing you to get to all the difficult to reach areas. Yes, the flashing light is annoying at first but your water bill will thank you at the end of the month. If you need this then pop on over to Takealot to grab one or two and they won't break your bank.
Another big one but not super expensive is a pool cover.Yes, I know that most people can't use their pools anyway but remember a pool without water cracks and that can cost tens of thousands to fix. so rather keep your pool semi-full and pop a cover over to keep the water from evaporating. You can pick up a cover at most pool shops and even Takealot, but if you can get one custom fitted for your pool I highly suggest it.
The Toilet is easily one of the biggest water consumers in the house, especially the older toilets with the large cisterns but we have a remedy for this, we actually have a couple options for you.Firstly if you have “newer” toilet you might have this installed already, that is a dual flush system. If you toiled has the tap and flush or the two separate flush buttons just by using the alternative flush could cut your usage by half. There are a couple more ways: Have you ever wondered why there was a brick in your grandparent's toilet, well if not then you probably think I'm weird but it works. You could purchase a tank bag which is an inflatable device that occupies space in your toilet tank, reducing the amount of water that goes down the tubes every time you flush.
Rainwater tanks are going to be vital for when the clouds do open and the rain finally decides to visit. So be prepared to catch what little we get. Place a barrel at the bottom of your rain gutter and use that water for your lawn if it still exists and if and in these dire times, use it to flush your toilets.
Lastly, we have the trusted JoJo Tanks, for the ambitious water savers out there. If you own a business and you don't have a Jojo on your property then you are going to come across some difficulty once day zero hits. Especially when everyone wants to “drop the boys off at the pool” at work rather than at home if you know what I mean. More than this it is an investment for when the situation becomes quite dire and you still need a working force. You can get these trusted JoJo tanks in different capacities ranging from 1000, 4000, 5000, and 10000 liters, but JoJo Tanks have released 240 and a 500-liter version for the households that don't have all the space necessary for these tanks.
