There’s a new water plant there – down near the back gate – and it’s quite big. It’s a big room and you can see into it through windows along one wall with information boards. Inside, there are lots of pumps, pipes, tanks and stuff. It was pretty impressive.

The plant takes water from rainfall and some of the enclosures and treats it so it is class A recycled water.

The recycled water is then used for washing animals, filling pools around the zoo, watering the gardens and flushes all toilets in the zoo. Can you believe they’ve used about 50,000 kilolitres in 4 years? That’s a lot of saved water…

Whilst it is important to keep gutters free of such debris, gutter guards are not the perfect solution. Leaves can build up on top of a leaf guard which presents a fire risk and also means that decomposed leaves will get through the mesh into the gutters below.The smartflo gutters are based on the same principle but instead of a mesh across the entire gutter, they have a solid cover to the gutter. There are filters along the length of the gutter to allow water through but prevent other materials entering the gutter. The long term prospect is that the water harvested will be cleaner and the gutters remain unblocked and undamaged for longer.We have not seen these gutters in action, but the manufacturers claim all debris is blown away so these gutters never need cleaning, even in fire season.

But what happens when your tank is empty? Maybe it hasn’t rained for weeks or months, maybe you had a lot of visitors and they used up the tank water faster than usual, and now you can’t use tank water to flush your toilet.

Well, you could resort to using buckets of water from the shower/bath or straight form a tap. However, the easier method is to install some sort of switching device in your plumbing system.

A switch will automatically use tap water when there is not enough tank water available. This means you can save water most of the time but not face the inconvenience of an empty tank.

** Connecting your tank to the house pipes and adding a switching device need to be done by a licensed plumber.

It may not have been possible to get a tank in when you saw the rains coming (which is a pity as it probably would have filled a number of times!) but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of that water…

• put out buckets, bowls, plastic tubs, etc and collect some rain to use in your garden next week or use to rinse clothes
• get out in the garden between showers (downpours!) and turn over your garden beds
• aerate your lawn to maximise how much water is soaking into teh roots (You can do this by poking holes in the lawn with a pitchfork, shovel, strong stick or whatever – it doesn’t have to be a fancy aerator to work)
• park outside so your car gets a natural clean
• put all pots out where they will catch some rain – protect them from eh harshest downpours
• prepare to mulch your garden in the coming days to keep the moisture in the soil
• continue to conserve water in the house, and remind others that rain now doesn’t mean restrictions have ended or that water is still not in limited supply

As you turn over the soil and mix in compst, lay out a length of slotted pipe under the soil. Slotted pipe is a sturdy but flexible pipe with small slots or holes along its length.

One end of the pipe needs to angle up and sit about 10 cm above the soil surface when the bed is finished. Each time it rains or you water the garden, water will go into the pipe.

By burying the pipe under the soil, any water in the pipe will seep into the soil around the roots of your plants. This encoruages roots to grow down which makes for stronger plants.

It also means that water is not on the hot surface which means less will eveaporate and be lost.

Of course, you can also do this in old garden beds when you are working on them but it is easiest to add the pipe when there are no plants to manoever around.

Well, first you would need to know how much rain actually fell. You can find out by listening to the news or checking with the weather bureau, but this will often be the amount of rain that fell somewhere near you rather than what fell in your exact area. Alternatively, you can use a rain gauge in your own yard to measure rainfall.

Then you need to determine the actual area of your roof – and luckily you only need to do that once! Your house plans are probably the easiest way to do this, but you may be able to estimate the roof area if you know the square metres of your home (be careful if you have a two storey home, though!)

Then, for every square metre of roof area you can expect to collect about 1 litre of water for each millimetre of rain fall.

So if it rained 8ml last night, 8 litres of rain fell on each square metre of roof. If your roof is 10 square metres, you could have harvested 80 litres!

With that much water, it becomes clear why harvesting water can be so important – even water off a garage or shed can make a difference to how much watering you can do over summer.

Costs obviously become a factor in choosing a tank for your home. And it is worth looking around at different types of tanks and suppliers before buying one – the first deal it not always the best.

What costs are involved in buying a tank?

You will need to allow for:

• the physical tank itself
• pipes from your roof to your tank and then from your tank to your garden and so on
• a plumber to install the tank and pipes
• preparation of somewhere to place your tank (flattening the area, perhaps adding packed sand or a concrete base)
• a pump to move water from your tank to where you will use it – and an electrical source for that pump

There are government rebates to assist in putting a tank into your home – they vary between states and tank sizes. But the rebates generally won’t apply if you do it yourself instead of paying a plumber.

Is it worth the expense?

Well, apart from helping the environment, giving yourself fresh, unadulterated water, reducing the impact of water restrictions on your lifestyle and reducing the strain on our water catchments, having a water tank can save you money as well.

Once you have decided how much water you could use form a tank, subtract that much from your last water bill. Multiply that over 3 or 4 bills a year for the next 10 years, and the cost of a tank may not seem so large.

And that doesn’t even include the possibility (some would say likelihood) of increased water supply costs resulting from the current crisis.

We consider a tank a short term expense for long term gain – the more water we all collect, the better for us all.

Excluding space and finances, you need to consider what you need the water for and therefore how much you need. For instance, if you are watering a small garden you will need less water than someone who is using a tank for a large garden and weekly washing three cars.

Let’s say you need 2,000L a month. Does that mean you should get a 2,000L tank? Maybe. If you get regular rain that will constantly fill up your tank so there is 2,000L available every month, then  that size tank may be perfect for you. However, if your annual rainfall is not evenly distributed across the year, a 2,000L tank may be too small. In many parts of Australia, we don’t tend to get a lot of rainy days during February and March, and they are hot so our gardens need more water. In that situation, a full 2,000 L tank at the beginning of February may not hold enough water to last until the next rain – a 4,000L tank would be much better.

You can use personal experience or check out the meteorology websiteto check average rainfalls  for each month to decide how big your tank will ideally be to last your needs.

Many people are surprised at the fact they need much larger tanks than they suspected. It’s much better to figure it out before you buy one than next March when your tank is dry, restrictions are in place and there is no rain…

If your gutters are leaking or sagging, then you will not be collecting all of the water falling on your roof.

It’s not hard to check your gutters are sound. Walk around your house and look up at the gutters. Can you see any places where the gutters sag down or have holes? After the next rain, look at the gutters again and watch for any obvious leaks.

If you only find a small problem, get it repaired! If you find a big problem or lots of little ones, it may be worth considering getting some new gutters.