Using grey water

South Africa is experiencing a very dry period, and some areas are worse than in other parts.

Here in Port Elizabeth, we are down to 40 to 50 Litres of water per person per day.

I'm just thankful my washing machine is a top-loader, which makes it easier for me to control it.

I have a small courtyard with some plants, and unfortunately, I already lost some of my plants due to the drought.

The only way how I could use grey water was to work my washing machine "manually".

Because I am on my own and working from home, I do not have a lot of dirty clothes (I do washing once a week and occasionally twice a week).

I once took the time to measure how much water my washing machine use at its lowest setting. It came to about 25 Litres per cycle, meaning 25 Litres for washing and 25 Litres to rinse = 50 Litres in total.

There was a time that I took notes on how much water I use per day and I knew that on average I only use 20 to 30 Litres of water per day. This includes everything, from taking a splash to doing dishes including drinking water and flushing the toilet.

It means that over a period of 7 days, I used about 210 Litres of water. This gave me amply water to wash my clothes and still be inside the water bracket.

In the above picture, you can clearly see how I drain the water from my washing machine into a large plastic basin (first cycle). I scooped the water out and watered my garden.

With the second cycle (rinsing), I left that 25 Litres of water in the basin for watering my plants a little later in the week again.

To be innovative shows you that even if you are staying in a city and water and money is tight, you can try to survive with as little as you possibly can and still make a good living and live a well-deserved lifestyle.