Water is an extremely vital natural resource that requires careful conservation attitude in any design being undertaken by a Kenyan Architect. There is need to ensure that it is used and preserved carefully. This applies to water that has been supplied to the site through clean piped water supply, as well as water that has been harvested from rain water or from natural resources in proximity to the site. In addition other sources may include borehole water which is a means by which water is harnessed and used as clean potable water.

Recycling Water for Water Sustainability – Considerations by the Kenyan Architect

integrated water features

One of the other areas regarding water management that is of vital importance to the Kenyan architect is the ability of a building to reuse its water that has already been utilized for one purpose or another on site. Traditionally, buildings would drain whatever water that had been exhausted on the site, regardless of whatever usage it had been for. One would find that water that has been used for washing hands would be disposed of together with water from a toxic chemical operation, or sewer water from toilets. There exists a possibility that the water that has been utilized on site can have whatever impurities that are in it to be removed, leaving it relatively purified and available for reuse on site, albeit for other non-potable uses.

Green Design Can Be Achieved Through Recycled Water For Water Sustainability!

One of the most promising areas of ensuring water sustainability is by recycling water that has been already supplied and used on the site. This process ensures a perpetual water cycle which does not diminish quickly. Only water that has been used and is too toxic for either human or outdoor use can be discarded through liquid waste disposal systems like sewerage.

Recycling of water is a basic part of project sustainability. There is a need to ensure that water is treated as much as possible on-site, to enable it to be used again in conformity to environmental regulations. Such water that is recycled from ordinary domestic use is commonly termed as ‘grey water’ and may be suitable for reuse in non-potable applications.

Green Options Available For the Kenyan Architect to Achieve Water Sustainability

Various options exist for developers and architects to employ today with regard to recycling of waste water. These vary greatly in size, capacity and complexity, and they may be appropriate for various types of developments, depending on the populations that they are to support. There are systems for example that are able to recycle water for hundreds of users or residents, while there are simpler ones that allow users to recycle water for a single dwelling unit.

Some complex recycling systems work by ensuring recycled water is filtered first to facilitate removal of solid waste particles suspended in the water. Heavy metals and like impurities are also removed by allowing the water to rest in settlement tanks, and these are then filtered out. Other more complex processes allow for ionisation and biotic aeration of the water to kill harmful microorganisms and further remove harmful substances in the water. These are patented in some recycling systems that speed up or catalyse these processes such that the water is purified much quicker, and can attain a higher level of purity.

Typical recycling systems allow the water to flow from one holding tank to the next, with particular purification processes occurring in each holding tank. At the end of this process, the water may be suitable for reuse, having attained a very high degree of purification. However it may only be utilized according to the environmental regulations of an zone.

Psychological preferences too come into play as regards usage of recycled water. In this regard, it may be undesirable for users of a built facility to think that the water they drink from their taps has been recycled from the sewer system. This would cause great alarm from residents, despite the water being scientifically tested as fit for human consumption.

The Kenyan Architect Must Achieve Balance of Water Sustainability in Design

The best solution that the Kenyan architect must ensure for this challenge is to design units with provision for dual piped systems that reticulate fresh water and recycled water separately. The recycled water can be designated to flow to areas where it shall be utilized separately for non-potable uses, such as flushing WCs, watering landscaping or similar uses. Grey water therefore becomes limited to areas where the water is not likely to be drunk or used for cooking. The white water can be circulated with a preference to areas where it shall be used for these purposes.

Very dirty water which contains high levels of toxicity, also known as black water may result after several cycles of purification, or if there are activities that issue dangerous chemical effluent on site. These should be treated as much as possible to reduce levels of toxicity, and thereafter can be safely discharged into the sewer system, without going back into the normal recycling cycle.

These principles of water sustainability should be taken care of in the process of undertaking planning for water supply and preparing a green policy for a development. The Kenyan architect is well advised to ensure that designed buildings have adequate provisions to cater for this most valuable natural resource in order to achieve water sustainability.