For months now, we have heard about the water crises in Cape Town and Capetonians are urged to save water. Now we have reached Level 6B, furthermore expecting us to reduce our water consumption to 50 litres per person in a household.
At CRCH, we have 49 children in care and 16 staff on duty daily and approximately 10 volunteers. How will we survive without compromising our quality of care.
This is what we do!
The Children are washed in smaller basins of water, this grey water is used in the toilet cisterns in the children’s bathroom areas. Water used to rinse the dishes are used to mop floors.
We have 3 tanks in place that harvest rainwater -this water would also be used for the toilet cisterns and washing floors and the vehicles. The rest of the bath grey water is used for the lawn and the garden as this water cannot be kept for longer than 24 hours then it compromises the hygiene within the area.
The 4th tank we are in the process to be linked up with the washing machine’s water which will also be used in the toilet cisterns and the floors and lastly the garden/ lawn as we cannot keep it for longer than 24 hours.
We have a Well point but level 6B water restrictions, prohibits you from using this for lawn hence due to these limitations will be used to flush the toilets only and possibly wash floors.
The basin taps are closed in the children bathrooms and in some of the toilets on our premises and using hand sanitisers for our hands instead of water. We are trying to obtain the Albex no flush product to ensure that the hygiene and minimise risks within the home.
We had some changes made to the laundry machine to lessen the amount of water for the rinse cycle.
We use boiled tap water from the hydro boil for the babies’ formula bottles as we minimise the risk of diarrhoea.
Ideally, we are hoping to install a phase two filtration system –to recycle all grey water and re-use in and around the home – Further funding needed for this project.
This is what we are doing to save water, and you?
