Communal Rainwater Harvesting

Did you know that many regions in England are considered ‘seriously water stressed’ by the Environment Agency? As the country's future water deficit grows to an additional 5 billion litres per day by 2050, communal rainwater harvesting offers a long-lasting solution to improve water efficiency within homes.

Issues around water scarcity are not the only problem with water in the UK. Water management is also an issue with aging sewage infrastructure regularly reaching capacity and releasing pollutants into nearby natural water courses.

Rainwater harvesting is a solution to both of these problems. Not only can systems reduce per capita consumption of water by replacing precious drinking water with recycled rainwater in non-potable outlets, but rainwater harvesting also prevents large volumes of surface water from entering the over-capacity drainage network.

Rainwater harvesting is proven to reduce water consumption in residential properties by up to 55%.

• Remove ownership and maintenance responsibilities from the homeowner to a management organisation.
• Remove internal components from homes, assisting with reduced risk of cross-contamination between the rainwater and mains water supplies.
• Prevent homeowners from switching the system off due to a lack of knowledge.
• Can be linked with onsite attenuation capacity for a more cost-effective per-dwelling solution.
• Can work as part of a wider biodiversity plan whilst saving space by reducing the required capacity of swales and ponds.
• Utilise commercial grade components for extended lifespan.
• A single point of maintenance.
• Mitigate the need for consumer behaviour changes in water usage by supplying them with rainwater.

Many rely on the ‘water fittings’ approach for achieving greater water efficiency within homes. Water fittings are technologies that reduce the use of water in key outlets, examples include air-assisted showers, aerated toilet flushing, and dual-flush toilets. Communal rainwater harvesting is the optimal water-saving solution because…

• Communal systems cannot be simply removed by homeowners for high water using alternatives.
• Using rainwater rather than mains water is commonly seen as indistinguishable.
• A lasting piece of infrastructure which can be monitored, maintained, and enforced.
• Offers centralised monitoring of water levels and water savings.