Why Community Rainwater Harvesting is the future
07/05/2023
The perfect storm is brewing in the UK housing sector. Rapid construction of new housing developments, coupled with growing pressure on ageing water infrastructure, and increased flood risk from the impacts of climate change are massive challenges the sector will need to overcome. If we do not act now on water scarcity, the UK will face shortages by 2050.
Whilst water efficiency standards of new homes have improved in the past 20 years, the truth is that homes are still being constructed where toilets and hosepipes are supplied with drinking water.
Where rainwater harvesting systems have been installed in homes, systems are on a small-scale and are reliant on the homeowners to carry out regular maintenance works.
A Community Rainwater Harvesting System which can serve large housing developments offer the greatest opportunity for saving water and reducing localised flood risk.
Having maintained rainwater harvesting systems for 20 years, we know what works and we know what could work better. That is why we know one, centralised community system offers the best rainwater harvesting solution for housing developments.
Individual house systems are reliant on homeowner maintenance or maintenance being charged at a commercial rate. This means they are often switched off or become non-operational. Water companies cannot guarantee that these types of systems are reducing demand on drinking water supplies or contributing towards attenuation capacity.
A community rainwater harvesting system offers centralised monitoring of attenuation capacity and water savings by water companies, the developer and homeowners. This way, maintenance can be carried out by a trained professional on a bi-annual basis, rather than a homeowner.
Other benefits of a community rainwater harvesting system;
Larger storage potential – the community rainwater harvesting system can be utilised as part of the on-site attenuation capacity which reduces flood risk for the community.
Safety – more advanced filtration technologies like UV filtration and automatic backwashing can be added to a community system. An individual house system may not have the space requirements for the extra purification process.
Installation and maintenance – the likelihood of incorrect installations can be reduced by one, central system and can even be installed by one of our team, eliminating the risk all together. Instead of a maintenance engineer having to service many individual house systems, they will only need to service the one system, making maintenance more efficient and cost-effective!
Learn more
We offer free of charge CPD sessions for organisations who are wanting to learn more about Rainwater Harvesting. Get in touch with our team here.
Written by Matt
Water Reuse Specialist
Water Reuse Specialist
My role as a Water Reuse Specialist means I get to keep up to date with all things water conservation. My favourite water saving tip is to turn taps off when brushing your teeth! I think rainwater harvesting and the water reuse industry is exciting, and I love sharing updates with our customers. View Matt’s Stormsaver profile here.
