GREENer HOUSE

It’s mid-October and we’ve had just one decent rain in Johannesburg in the last five months. I’m feeling desperate, but the atrium garden outside my bathroom is looking lush and green. Not because it’s been irrigated; I haven’t run the sprinkler in the atrium this whole year. The plants are living on bathwater. Two or three times a week, I open the window, plunge one end of my handy-dandy siphon pump into the water, and give it about five squeezes. The siphon effect takes over, since the garden is lower than the tub, and in 10 or 15 minutes, the bath is nearly empty and the garden is watered.

The entire cost of this fancy greywater system was R24.30, including 2 m of tube. The pump itself costs just R11.10. I bought it all from F A B Water Engineering in Randburg, but I’m sure these hand siphon pumps are available many places.
My only modification was to use a rubber band to strap a piece of metal (a small, throwaway spanner that came packaged with some DIY furniture) to the end of the intake tube. This weighs down the tube so that it sucks the water from the bottom of the tub. One day, I might buy a longer piece of flexible tubing for the outlet (I wish I had bought 4 m to start with), plug the end and cut various holes along its length to distribute the water around the atrium without ever having to move the hose.

Admitedly, the system only works if you have a bath, window and garden in a usable alignment. And it does require a bit more effort than just draining my bath. But it gives me great pleasure to share my bathwater not only with my wife, but with my garden.