bathroom and shower sources, discarded untreated on the street is a common problem in urban and peri-urban environments in low-income countries; it damages infrastructure and becomes a health risk due to mosquito breeding and pathogen growth. In water scarce areas, ecological sanitation grey water disposal systems that reuse the grey water to grow plants have been popular as they offer safer disposal methods and can lead to reduced water stress and increased food security. Statement of the Problem Straddling the Tropic of Cancer, Botswana has a sub- tropical desert climate, with low rainfall, with annual rainfall averaging just 460mm, Botswanas climate is arid or semi-arid (low rainfall).This has affected the farming industry in Botswana due to unavailability of water for farming. The only solution is to use tap water which is a waste of resources considering that a large amount of money is used to treat the water before it is availed for domestic use. Gardening activities using valuable potable or fresh water has been rampant in Botswana and this has caused negative impact on natural water resources and has increased the cost of water treatment arising from increased demand for freshwater. Aims and Objectives The objective of this project was to evaluate the the potential of using grey water for irrigation in Botswana. The evaluation was done with respect to technical performance, soil and plant health and system requirements in order to determine the future applicability of these systems in Botswana. If necessary, proposals should be made on ways to improve the design or on suggestions for alternate systems that might be more suitable for the conditions in Botswana. Justification
It's a waste to irrigate with great quantities of drinking
water when plants thrive on used water containing small bits of compost. Unlike a lot of ecological stopgap measures, grey water reuse is a part of the fundamental solution to many ecological problems and will probably remain essentially unchanged in the distant future. The benefits of grey water recycling include:
Lower fresh water use
Less strain on failing septic tank or treatment plant Better treatment (topsoil is many times more effective than subsoil or treatment plant) Less energy and chemical use Groundwater recharge Plant growth Reclamation of otherwise wasted nutrients Increased awareness of and sensitivity to natural cycles GREYWATER REUSE Greywater has been reused for irrigation purposes for many years all over the world and specifically in countries with very similar climatic conditions to Botswana, such as Australia, Europe (Spain, Denmark), Japan, Israel, Jordan and USA (California, New Mexico and Arizona). Why should you reuse greywater? Use less of our valuable potable or fresh water and save thousands of litres of drinking water. Reduce the impact on natural water resources by reducing water consumption. Save money on water bills. Ensure a constant water supply for the garden. Possibly add nutrients from the greywater that are beneficial to plants and soil Have the satisfaction of taking responsibility for efficient use of a valuable, finite resource. Reduce the flow to the sewerage system, thereby reducing water treatment costs. Benefits of using greywater Depending on the source, greywater may contain small and varying amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, which are potential sources of plant nutrients. The soapy nature of greywater can sometimes act as a pest repellent. It saves portable water. GREYWATER SYSTEMS The best solution for the reuse of greywater of households in sewered areas is to reuse greywater in such a manner that it does not need any treatment at all. The reason for this is that household greywater is regarded as the best for reuse because of its relatively clean nature and does not require any further cleaning. What is a greywater system? A greywater system can be very simple, for instance you can use a bucket to carry your bathroom water outside to water a special plant. Other complex systems are available. Between these two extremes are many varieties of systems that you can use for irrigating watering with household greywater. The goal is to find the level of system that makes maximum use of your greywater while minimising your costs for the purchase, installation and maintenance of your system. Bucket system (Fig 4): A simple bucket system can be used to transport the greywater, by hand, from the bathroom to garden. It is the cheapest system but is inconvenient and increases the possibility of contact and contamination between the greywater and people carrying the bucket . Fig 4. Re-using greywater can be as simple as placing a bucket under the shower to collect used water. Top of the range commercial greywater system: Households in suburban sewered areas have indoor plumbing and the greywater is collected via pipes that connect the source e.g. (bathroom water) to the sewerage system. The greywater system (Fig 5) is connected directly to the outlet pipes of the bathroom and the greywater is collected in a collection or storage tank without coming into contact with humans or even the open air. Before collection, the greywater is filtered to remove hair and lint. From the collection or storage tank, the greywater is pumped to irrigation pipes and distributed to the garden.
Fig 5. A commercial greywater system
System design In this filter style the water enters from below so that the maximum amount of contact between the water and sand is achieved. The method of producing this up flow is explained quite well by the figure below although in many systems this action is achieved by pressure. One advantage of this kind of filter is that it also provides a matrix for biological colonies to exist and contribute in the treatment process by consuming the pollutants as well as being a fine filter for trapping particles. CONCLUSION There are a lot of things to consider when designing a grey water recycling system but it is not so complex that it would be extremely difficult artefact to create. All the designer needs to do is first decide on the capabilities of the system and then carefully plan the system based on those intended capabilities. Those capabilities include footprint; how much floor space is suitable for such a device in a given environment volume; how much grey water can the system effectively treat purity of treated grey water; what level of purity is required for the intended end use level of technology; decide the level of sophistication required so that the system can effectively operate at the desired condition and how expensive the components can reasonably be expansion; is there a possibility that in the future more capacity is required. BENEFITS OF GREY WATER RECYCLING
Use less of our valuable potable or
fresh water and save thousands of litres of drinking water. Reduce the impact on natural water resources by reducing water consumption. Save money on water bills. Ensure a constant water supply for the garden.