Water harvesting

By: Marje Kennan

In Zimbabwean cities at the moment our unreliable municipal water supply and a very low water table has made water a particularly precious commodity and a constant talking point amongst property sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants!

Estate Agents are finding it very difficult to interest buyers in houses without a reliable borehole and consequently more and more boreholes are being sunk in the cities and the holes are getting drilled deeper and deeper as everyone tries to access the same underground water table.

Some buyers have been disappointed when they have bought a house with a “reliable” borehole only to find that it becomes a “seasonal” borehole and most “seasonal” boreholes have dried up completely!

The problem has been exacerbated by the bad rainy seasons of the past 4 years. Even with a very good rainy season which is predicted by the experts and optimists for 2021, the water table is unlikely to rise enough to provide enough water for all the boreholes in the urban areas of Zimbabwe.

The solution to this problem is WATER HARVESTING. Look to the skies and attempt to capture every drop of rain from the available surfaces around your home. This includes the roof, your driveway, a tennis court if you have one and even the road next to your house if you can catch the run off.

To build catchment boxes and lay underground pipes that will channel the water to your storage point will involve a certain outlay of capital, but in the long term you will save on the drilling of new boreholes or the purchase of water. Your water harvesting project should pay for itself within a year!

Ideally the water will flow by gravity into your storage unit, either tanks or a reservoir or a plastic line dam.

Reservior

Plastic lined dam

An added bonus to practicing water harvesting is the contribution you are making to an eco-friendly environment. Capturing, storing and using rainwater will help alleviate the pressure on underground water and Zimbabwe’s dwindling secondary water sources.

Commenting on his recent rain water harvesting project , a client said “ I am delighted that I now own my water, I can measure it and depend on it. I no longer am constantly worrying about by neighbor drilling a deeper borehole and stealing my supply by tapping into the same underground water!”