Undergraduate Thesis - Feasibility of Rainwater Harvesting in Paarden Island

The scope of this investigation will be to consider Paarden Island as a whole system and assess the ability of rainwater harvesting for the entire area and not for each specific business unit or erf. A sample of businesses will be assessed individually to consider the practicality of implementing rainwater harvesting systems for different businesses that use water in different ways on erven of varying size. Thus if the results show that Paarden Island can supply its own water it would not necessary mean that each individual business erf will be able to supply its own water. I.e. a business that has a high consumption of water but a small roof area would not be able to generate enough freshwater supply to meet the demand, similarly a business that uses very little water but has a large roofed area would be able to supply many times its water demand and thus be required to waste most of its rainwater collection.

 

The accuracy of data concerning what amount of water is required for different levels of water qualities will not be accurate. Most businesses will only have water measurements of how much water it is that they use in a month and not for how much is allocated to its different uses since it is unlikely that all businesses will have water management systems installed.

 

Due to time constraints and man power it will not be possible to visit all the businesses located in Paarden Island and thus the total amount of water required for each level of water quality will only be an estimate of the area based on data collected by the City of Cape Town.