Interesting Water Facts – You’ll be Surprised…

Water is an extremely precious resource both globally and particularly in Southern Africa. Consider some of these glaring facts:

• 97% of the earth’s water is in the oceans. Only 3% of the earth’s water can be used as drinking water. 75% of the world’s fresh water is frozen in the polar ice caps. Over 6 billion people must then share the remaining water.
• About 43% of South Africa’s rainfalls on 13% of the land, and only 9% of that reaches our rivers.
• South Africa is a semi-arid country with an average rainfall of 450mm that is well below the global average of 860mm.
• About 12 million people in South Africa have no access to clean drinking water.
• About 50% of rural households have no piped water.

Within this resourced constrained environment, we consume water at shocking rates. Consider:

• A toilet is the single biggest user of indoor water. On average, it uses 11 litres of water when flushed. A family of four will use 176 litres of water when each uses the toilet four times per day.
• The average washing machine uses about 100 litres of water per wash cycle.
• The average tap runs at 10 litres per minute.
• The average shower runs at 22 litres per minute.
• A garden hose can spray about 30 litres of water per minute.
• The average person, within a middle class home, uses 200 litres per day, to water the garden.

Source: Biolytix

If the above statistics can be relied upon, an average household would easily generate enough greywater to replace the 200 litres of drinking water that would be used to water the garden. This means that even during water restrictions, your garden will be irrigated automatically if Water Rhapsody’s grey water recycling system is installed.  Our rainwater storage tanks ensure that there will be water in case of water cuts that are so prevalent these days (especially in small towns like White River, Mpumalanga).  Water Rhapsody has also developed a retro-fit toilet flushing mechanism, the Multi-flush.  This simple and affordable water saving device drastically reduces the amount of water flushed down the toilet.  The Multi-flush is totally user-controlled and only flushes as long as the lever is held down.  See our product demo for a simplified demonstration of how how our water systems work.