Water

Sunday, 10 May 2009 06:03

Written by Administrator

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Also see Village Office Notices in the Village Information tab on the Home Page. 

PREVIOUSLY CIRCULATED NOTES ON WATER 
(With thanks again to all contributors)

Non Potable Water supplies:  

Derek Parker runs the Village DIY non-pot scheme.    Ph. 99 311538.

Non-potable pool and garden water is supplied by water tanker by:

Mr Savvas, (99 476645).    
Costas Koupanos, 99 400549. 

Delivered prices:  10 tonnes - €100, 24 tonnes - €200.   

WATER SUPPLIES

All the water the Village supplies to your home is potable (ie drinkable) water – UNLESS you are connected to the separate non-potable supply (see below).    If you are one of the few lucky enough to be connected to the non-potable supply you will have two meters.
 
So assume that your sole supply is potable Village water.  You cannot use it for your garden, irrigation supply or pool.

The fact that you have a tap in your kitchen called “village drinking water” simply reflects the fact that it comes direct from the supply pipe:  the rest of the water in your house is circulated through your water storage tank (usually on the roof) and therefore deemed not suitable for drinking. 

The garden tap is taken from a spur on the main village (potable) water supply, and therefore under the drought restrictions you cannot use it for watering the garden or topping up the pool.  If you do, you are as much to blame as anyone hosing down their terrace or washing their car with a hosepipe for depleting our Village drinking water supply! 

Non-potable supply

The Water Board has connected a non-potable water supply from the tanks on the old road down to the beach area, and as far the Columbia.   This supply is available to anyone – wherever you live in the Village – if you register for a meter and use a tank to transport the water to your home (see  below).   The cost of this water (which is suitable for gardens and pools) is about 50c per cubic metre.   As the bulk water deliveries by tanker cost about €10 per cubic metre,  it is clear that if you can join the co-operative  non-pot water group it will be much cheaper.                            

Water tanks

You are required to have a water storage facility if you have a pool, and you will not get your Certificate of Final Approval (or your Title Deeds) without one.   See below.

Subsidies

According to the Environment Commissioner, Charalambos Theopemptou, there are several subsidies available for water-saving measures.
“For the installation of a hot water circulator in your home, you will receive €170, while drilling a well in your garden from which to draw water pays out €680.  You will also receive €680 by connecting the well to the toilet via a separate pipe system”, he said.  He added that a €1,700 subsidy is available to those who install a grey or complete water treatment system.”

Bigger-scale water-saving ideas:

• Pool cover.   First, if you are a pool owner, get a cover.    With this,  you can stop up to 80% of evaporation and the amount of water lost through evaporation is considerable.
  
• Backwash.

Reduce the number of times you backwash, and backwash only if it is really necessary (check your pressure gauge).    Always follow the backwash with a short rinse to keep the sand clean to enable the filter to work efficiently.   In any case, clear as much debris as you can manually with a net.  

• Recycling Backwash

“This is a simple method of saving thousands of litres of water that is applicable to all pool owners!

Few people probably realise how much  water is wasted down the drain each time they ‘backwash’ the pool filter to clean it. John discovered that about 400 litres are wasted for each backwash and more if the pool is really dirty or is subject to having loads of sand blown into it (like most pools in Pissouri).

We have now both fitted a plastic tank and diverted the backwash water from the drain and into the tank. After a couple of days (less if you add a little flocculent) the dirt settles out of the water which can then be drained back into the swimming pool.

My tank (800 litres) cost €180 from the local DIY shop. You also need some fittings and hose from a pool shop to divert the water but they don’t cost much.

If every pool owner invested  about €400 in a thermal pool cover and a waste tank described above the village would save thousands of litres of water every week”.

You can buy a plastic water tank and either install it underground or at ground level, in which case you will need a pump (Note that white tanks might be prone to algae growth – most of these tanks have a black interior for this reason). 

• Install a water tank. 

This can be purpose-made plastic, or you can make your own:  it is perfectly simple and economic to dig a hole in the ground (a tractor helps), make a big concrete box and line it with swimming pool liner.   You will of course need a pump (a wide range is available – no doubt one of our local plumbers will be happy to advise) or you can install it at a height so it gravity feeds downwards.   There is plenty of advice available on how to do this and how to make it function (see the Home Page Directory).  These tanks can be used to catch backwash (see above), greywater or rainwater (or both).  Obviously if you are recycling backwash into the pool you will not want to put greywater into it.

Greywater/rainwater/bought-in non-potable water can be stored and used on the garden, and chlorinated backwash is apparently ok for the garden if left to neutralise for a few days. 

• Guttering.  Obviously, if you are going to the expense of installing a water storage tank, you will want to be able to channel rainwater into it.

• Instant Hot Water
from Rick Kendall (99079706) and Dave Eyre (96211416) (see website Village Directory)

“With the water problems very apparent in Cyprus currently everything that can be done to help out, however small, should be looked at very seriously.

Some facts based on my home, if I run off 7 litres of cold water before I get the hot, twice every day for 1 year I will use just over 5000 litres, that's 5 tons of water just wasted and that's just from one tap and I think I’m being quite conservative in that estimate.

With the new Ultimate water saver all this wasted water is fed directly back to your tank for reuse.
How it works:  it carefully monitors the temperature of the water in the hot pipe as you run it through, diverting it back along the existing cold back to your storage tank.   When the temperature has reached the desired level it switches off and blocks the transfer between cold and hot so you can use your taps as normal.

We also offer an installation service and the Ultimate water saver has a 1 year warranty.

For further information or to see the product visit http://www.rkendall.com”.  

• Aerated taps and shower heads.  Other water-saving devices being marketed  are  aerated shower heads and aerated taps, which claim to save 50-70% of consumption and cut the formation of lime-scale.    A copy of the article on these is available on request.

Contact q-water@cytanet.com.cy

It is obvious that, although there are grants available (and it seems Draintech can help with these, as no doubt can the Village Office who have the forms), these measures need a heavy expenditure.

Water, water, water – we won’t have any if we don’t look after what we have  …right now!

Whether you’re a tenant, a visitor or an owner, please follow these suggestions:

• Keep a bucket in every bathroom to collect water for use in toilets; use a bowl in every basin/sink to save every bit of water that you use for anything – all can be used for the garden.

• If you must bath rather than shower, share it and don’t wait for the hot water before you put the plug in.  Use bathwater to rinse clothes and/or non-greasy dishes.

• When showering, collect the first cold water in a bucket.  Try to consolidate use of hot water so you don’t waste any.  Shower less often and NOT out of habit first thing in the morning – always have the plug in the bath and use the water to flush the loo

DO NOT PUT ANY PADS/NAPPIES/PAPER into the cistern: these block the septic tank and need masses of water to clear away.  Use the ‘pads/paper’ bins provided: only solids that have been passed through a human should go down the loo.   Consider  not flushing the loo every time you use it – many of us limit flushing to three or four times a day for ‘solids’.

• Don’t run the tap continually while you brush your teeth, or the shower while you apply shampoo and/or conditioner.  Turn taps off when water is not actually needed 

• Do sweep and mop your terrace/courtyard/pavement with bathwater instead of hosing down and finally use the dirty water afterwards for the garden (detergent fine, but not bleach) 

• Please use a bucket to wash the car, or use a car-wash company that recycles water  (you are not allowed to use the hose to wash your car).

• Catch overflow water from air-conditioning units in a jerry can: good for pot-plants/garden

• Get leaks and dripping taps fixed.  (Plumber on the www.about-pissouri.com website).

• Please put a sand-filled plastic bottle or a brick into every cistern to limit the flush amount

• Use the economy switch on the washing machine and dishwasher.  Only use machines with a full load when you really need to.  Owners:  try diverting washing machine outflow water into the bath:  it looks horrid, but is very functional for patios, cars and toilets.

• Irrigate the garden only if it is essential and only in the evening to prevent evaporation.

• Owners: check your water meter reading regularly.  This lets you spot changes in consumption (such as leaks), and also gives you targets to improve on.  If you are not on an irrigation system, read your meter and turn it off when you go away.
 
Please display this notice in every bathroom, laundry area and kitchen.

It would seem that if we wanted to, using the above and the previous general rules on water saving, we could just about be in credit on our water usage.