PROJECT 19
Rainwater harvesting for hospital
by
Tanya Olckers with technical input from Darryl Brainin from Burgess Plumbing
A prominent hospital in Gauteng decided to add rainwater harvesting to its facilities. Burgess Plumbing was on hand to provide the installation.
Burgess Plumbing took three weeks to complete the project. The project involved the supply and installation of six 10 000l JoJo tanks to be used for rainwater harvesting. Once the water is harvested it would be filtered and then go on to supply the clinic and various other offices and ablution facilities at the hospital.
" One of the challenges that the team faced was getting the water tanks over a 3m high building entrance and into a courtyard "
The reasoning behind the project was to harvest rainwater to be used to assist in water outages at the hospital and reduce their overall water consumption on a yearly basis. A hospital without water is, undoubtedly, a frightening thought, but a looming reality as South Africa faces a water crisis.
Installation meant having specially manufactured box gutters that were then installed on existing roof spaces. Burgess Plumbing supplied and installed 160mm drainpipes from these gutters to the prefilter. From there, the Pure Rain Technologies prefilter yielded 99 % clean water into the tanks while debris, leaves and so on were washed down an overflow from the filter.
Six massive 10 000l JoJo tanks completed with interconnecting pipework and shut off valves to individual tanks were part of the
Continued on Page 22.
All images by Burgess Plumbing
Filtration is an important part of rainwater harvesting.
June 2025 Volume 31 I Number 04 www. plumbingafrica. co. za