Why rain water tanks at hospitals are a good idea

Most hospitals in South Africa have an electricity back-up in the form of generators but surprisingly, not many have alternative water supply or even stored water in water tanks for emergencies.  Rainwater tanks and water tanks should be part of every hospital’s contingency plans.

Many South African hospitals do not have alternative water supplies

Hospitals in South Africa and other African countries are often in news headlines because their water supply has been cut off or compromised.  A recent example is the Bloemfontein Hospital which was without normal water supply for a day or more and had to rely on municipal-supplied water tankers to supply water for cleaning and the hospital water forced to purchase drinking water for patients.  There have been other cases in southern Africa where hospitals did not even have water to wash newly born babies.

Hospitals, by the nature of their buildings, often have ideal and very large roof surfaces for the collection of rainwater.  Space around the hospital is also usually not a problem which means that a number of large 10000 litre, 15000 litre or 20000 litre water tanks could be placed along the walls to store thousands of litres of collected rainwater.

Rainwater harvesting could ensure that hospitals have a back-up supply of water during power cuts, civil unrest/striking municipality workers, war and natural disasters.  Having an in situ store of rain water in water tanks would make hospitals more self-sufficient and will not need to rely on municipal water tankers or other outside sources.  Of course, all rainwater for washing/dressing wounds and for drinking should be appropriately filtered and purified first.

Even if hospitals do not engage in rainwater harvesting, it would still be a wise decision to install a number of high capacity water tanks to store emergency supplies of municipal water.  This would ensure that hospitals have a few days’ worth of uninterrupted water supply so that the wellbeing of patients is not affected.

Also important, is the type and quality of water tanks that should be installed.  We recommend JoJo Tanks water tanks and rainwater tanks as these are manufactured with a food-grade, FDA-approved internal lining and the polyethylene is made from high grade material ensuring that the stored water is not contaminated with leached chemicals and the water is kept fresher for longer.