Why not collect rainwater and use it to flush the WC?

Question

Also good for washing as it is soft so less powder will reduce polution. The answer is water meters and have no standing charge just pay a lot for water used

Answer 1

people have been using rain water for domestic use ,in portugal and Spain for almost a thousand years
the Moors used to harvest water from the roofs of their houses to fill up tanks that were beneath the patios.,
the incas and Olmecs also used to have sofisticated waterharvesting principles ,and the idea is as old as the hills

a large part of the concept of permaculture is waterharvesting
and the principle is to redirect or absorb 100 percent of all the water that lands on you property ,during the rain.
this is called zero runoff.

we go even further, to include it into an enery flow ,for example

the water from the roof goes into a gutter to fill up a tank that over flows into a cannal which directs the water through the chicken house(or pig sty ) where it washes the manure to the vegetable garden.

also the water that comes from the shower,bath,hand basins ,and kichen sink,all go straight in to the garden to irrigate the plants.
if there is little water .with a simple arrangement you can also use the handbasins water to fill up the cistern to flush the toilet bowl

Also on the land or in the garden you dig as many holes as possible to be used as dams or as swales that either fill up with the rain and stay full to allow aqua culture (fish etc) or that fill up and then drain slowly into the ground to be added to underground water supplies and to saturate the ground deeply.

Permaculture means permanent agriculture
a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s

the designers manual is a complete hand book for environmental [e-mail]

With practical solutions for energy systems ,infratructure ,housing,
animal shelter ,water systems and sustainable agricultural practises.
With the world and it`s history as it`s source
From the chinampas of Mexico to the teraced gardens of the Andes.
From the dessert whadis to the steppes of Russia.
Covering all climatic conditions temporal, dessert, humid and dry tropics.
with chapters on soil ,Water harvesting and land design,
Earth working ,Spirals in nature,Trees and water ,utilising energy flows,
Strategy for an alternative nation

this book also has many gardening tips,bio-gas,companion planting and ideas for structures ,how to cool down houses in hot climates ,how to warm up houses in cold climates with out using technology but rather by design.

always aiming at autosuficiency and sustainability .
this can all be found in the designers manual by Bill Mollisson,


Collectively portraying an ancient and natural philosiphy
With the Laws of Nature as its base
coupled to the present day level of scientific knowledge.

Permaculture is well known and you can find many references on the web.
there is a University of Permaculture in Australia

and poverty is not the target but quality of life is
and since permaculture is extremly compact form of growing things.utilising all space and utilising all resource ,it is productive and economic.

some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames.htm
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.htm

I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico

Answer 2

The best (most unpolluted) water is the rain water. Leave out the first 5 minutes and then start storing it in vessels, cover these vessels with lids or cloth and you can use it for drinking purposes for long periods of time, even an year. All ancestral houses in south India have such rain water harvesting facilities wherein the rain water from the roof is collected in clean gutters and channelised to the storage vessels. Even today some of the State Governments in south India have made Rain Water Harvesting mandatory. So try your best to use it for drinking or at least for bathing or in the worst case, for WC flushing.

Answer 3

The Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources building is a "green" building. Among other conservation saving features, it collects rain-water and uses it to flush the toilets. City water is used as a back-up supply. The men's urinals are flush-free, requiring no water. The rain water used to flush the toilets is collected from the roof and from a rock base from stormwater around the base of the building.

As far as the idea of depleting surface water or groundwater, this is not a problem because wastewater is sent to the sanitary sewer and is treated at the wastewater treatment plant and is returned to the environment.

I also use a rain-barrel to collect rainwater from my roof gutters. This water is used to water the garden, yard, and fill the kids swimming pool.

Answer 4

When I was young we collected rain water at the farm and it went into a cistern under the house and was accessed through a hand pump at the kitchen sink. There was no other water in house.

The house I live in now was built in 1913 and it too had a similar water collection system that ran into a cistern and was accessed by a hand pump.

Today I suspect that it would be necessary to test the water for pollutants. Even so, we are considering collecting rain through the eave down spouts into barrels for use in the garden.,

Answer 5

I live in the US Virgin Islands and this is a standard here. In fact, building codes required every new dwelling to be built with a cistern. The cistern water can be used for flushing, bathing and even drinking. It's a great system in areas with a decent amount of yearly rainfall but keeping a system does require a bit of personal maintenance including regular chlorination.

Answer 6

Why not take a dump in the middle of the floor?

The environmentalists have lobbied to get toilets throttled to where a turd will hardly flush. Using Rain water jeez what kind of Northern California Ganja are you smoking?

I'd rather crap in the woods and use a stick to wipe. (not)

Answer 7

Serious comment from Joe King? And a good one too. I'd ask why we keep rainwater from rooves and road-gullies seperate from 'foul' water from domestic drains. Other companies flow them both into the sewerage plant. What goes in is far cleaner, and can come out, pristine, much quicker, from a smaller plant.

Answer 8

Nice idea but I live in a top floor flat so how I would collect the water, I can hardly leave a bucket hanging out of the window!

Answer 9

I use rainwater for almost everything. Only don't drink it as soft water is bad for the heart.

Answer 10

Good idea but it doesn't rain regularly in so many arid places that you can imagine the backlog of stuff in the WC when it rains just twice a year in your area.