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Students get prepared with emergency rainwater

Tuesday 21 February 2012, 3:30PM

By Massey University

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A typical household-scale emergency rainwater tank.
A typical household-scale emergency rainwater tank. Credit: Massey University

Small, household-scale emergency rainwater tanks are being installed at a Wellington secondary school to encourage people to get prepared before a disaster.

Five tanks will be installed by Year 12 students at Wellington East Girls’ College, as part of an ongoing partnership between Massey University’s Roof Water Research Centre, the college and WaterGain Limited, an Auckland water solutions company.

The group hopes to encourage homeowners to install rainwater tanks before a disaster strikes so that people have a steady supply of emergency water for drinking, essential cleaning, and food preparation.

Students will demonstrate aspects of the installation process tomorrow at 11.30am.

The director of Massey’s Roof Water Research Centre, Stan Abbott, says the partnership aims to create practical alternative water supplies, of which the household-scale tanks are one important component.

“Some communities in Christchurch had to survive for more than 100 days without a mains water supply after the earthquake last February. At times people queued for up to five hours for water tankers to arrive at some welfare centres. That situation has demonstrated just how important it is to be prepared.”

Mr Abbott says the small rainwater tanks are inexpensive, easy to install, and capable of effectively collecting and storing enough roof water for emergency uses.