UCT students have come up with yet another innovative solution to save water during the drought.
The team of final year Business Science students have developed a product called Shower Savvy, which makes collecting grey water in a bucket seem archaic.
Shower Savvy is a device that uses interlocking containers to form a platform which is placed on the shower floor.
The falling water is then trapped in the containers and can be reused to flush toilets, wash your car or water plants.
Users can purchase as many containers as needed to lock together and fit into their shower or hand basins and the device can hold about 40 litres of water.
“The Shower Savvy offers a solution that does not require the user to go out of their way at all. It fits perfectly into the everyday life of the user by fitting into the floor of their shower. It’s unobtrusive and so it solves the problem that South Africans won’t change their behaviour to save water,” said Shower Savvy team member, Andrew Dare.
“Another factor that makes it unique is that it collects so much water and does not require that there be rainfall before the system starts working.
“On average, showers use 22 litres per minute. If a household can save just 40 litres of shower water per day, they could save 14600 litres per year,” said Mr Dare.
He said the idea was inspired by the GRIS water-saving system introduced in Brazil which also interlinks containers to save water, however, they have made changes to this design, which is not in production yet, and they hope to make the product affordable for South Africans.
“With the average annual household income in the Western Cape, being only R30000, we need an affordable system if we hope to have anyone saving water.
“The Shower Savvy does not require some complex installation. You just place it down and carry on with life as usual.
“South Africa is largely unprepared for the drought situation and with no alternative water systems in place it has having to rely on convincing households to reduce their water consumption,” said Mr Dare.
