The company Genap has recently significantly reduced its drinking water consumption. Genap is doing this by collecting rainwater from the roof and using it to flush the toilets. In doing so, Genap saves a total of approximately 78,000 liters of drinking water per year, around 33% of their total annual water consumption. In a time of climate change, drought and water shortages at drinking water companies, these saving are especially interesting.
Genap delivering foil constructions worldwide
The reason Genap is focusing on economical water consumption is not coming out of the blue. The company produces foil constructions that are used worldwide to store water, for example in horticulture and the agricultural sector. General manager Dick van Regteren, about the reason why Genap wanted to reduce water consumption: “We are professionally involved with water storage every day and then you think: why don’t we actually use that rainwater ourselves?”.
But where is this rainwater coming from?
“Simple”, says Dick: “by collecting rainwater from the roof of our production hall and storing that water, after purification, in a Rainwater Wall. This new ‘water wall’ was invented by Martijn Nitzsche of the company AAWS from Delft. The Rainwater Wall is a narrow, long and high water tank, which we have placed next to our hall and in which approximately 7,000 liters of rainwater can be stored”.
Concerning the water quality requirements Dick mentions: “The rainwater is purified according to the legal standards, and this prevents bacteria or viruses from being carried along with the rainwater. After purification, the rainwater can be used perfectly well to flush toilets, scrub floors and wash cars. And because the rainwater is not containing any lime, far less soap is needed for cleaning”.
Buffering rainwater
It is not only beneficial to have rainwater available in the dry summer period. Nitzsche of AAWS adds: “When it rains heavily, the tank can be also used to store excess rainwater and prevent flooding”. In the coming years Genap is planning to renovate its housing more sustainable. Dick: “We are going to renovate and one of our goals is to reduce our internal water consumption even further by using Rainwater Walls not only to flush the toilets, but also to water the garden and for showering”.
Genap hopes to reduce drinking water consumption by another 50% this way. “Unfortunately climate change is a fact: at Genap we try to deal with it as good as possible ”, says van Regteren.
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