Reconnecting with water...

Our #waterstory.

Stories give us perspective and frame our reality. We need more stories about people who make the world a better place. Stories that empower us and give us hope.

Australia is a country on the brink of a water crisis. Understanding why water is scarce and where the water goes is crucial to keeping our taps flowing today in for our children.

I live in Tukuwompa - a place European invaders renamed Samsonvale in 1845 - on 40 acres of bush land 40kms NW of Brisbane.

Here we harvest, filter, test and drink 100% of our water from the rain, with no connection to town water or to sewer networks.

This means looking after a 120,000L water system and treating all our wastewater.

Our plumbing separates greywater (showers, sinks, basins, washing machine) and blackwater (toilets). This separation means we can reuse some of this water (the greywater) by spraying it on our gardens and fruit trees and thus reduce our freshwater usage.

Our greywater goes into a concrete tank from which it is pumped out and sprayed directly on plants. Reusing greywater for irrigation reconnects our gardens to the natural water cycle, creating a full cycle.

The blackwater needs treatment before it can be disposed in nature. From toilets into a concrete tank for separation - heavy solids settle to the bottom where bacteria partially decompose them into a digested sludge (and gases). This sludge will accumulate until it needs to be vacuumed out - on average (for us) every 5 years.

The effluent water then flows down into an transpiration bed where the water evaporates from the soil and transpires from the plants growing there. The dissolved organic matter is removed by bacteria and the remaining nutrients are taken up by plants.

Managing our water and wastewater has taught us to (re)think our connection to water.

We’ve learnt to minimise the use of cleaning chemicals and cosmetic products, and we always read labels carefully as what goes down the drain doesn’t just disappear.. but ends up on our gardens.

What we flush down the toilet can harm the bacteria that work relentlessly to treat the blackwater before it gets released into the ecosystems around us. I’ve learnt to feed my toilets some yeast and sugar every few weeks and I now know baking soda helps balance the pH level in my tank to manage odour.

Toilet flushing has also become a very mindful action in my house.

Rainwater stored in a tank is safe to drink as long as proper steps are taken. Our tanks need to be cleaned and maintained properly. Before the water is pumped into the house, it needs to be filtered (in our case, a 4 filters' process: sediment, carbon, metal removal and alkaliser). We do not add chlorine or other chemicals to our water and we get it tested every 6 months to make sure it is safe to drink, and the filters are still doing their job.

I hope this story will inspire.

Sustainable practices - by definition - seek to maintain the same, whereas regenerative practices recognize that natural systems are currently impacted, and it applies management techniques to restore the system to improved productivity.