Greywater Irrigation | Upington Referral Hospital
Irrigation Works
In brief, the greywater irrigation system installed, builds water resilience. The system consists of 95% drip tubing- which has efficiencies of up to 95%. To begin with, a filtration plant supplies the hospital with filtered, sterile water. At that point, the greywater derived from this process, along with additional autoclave water (a byproduct of the hospital sterilization process), diverts to irrigation tanks.
Thereafter, three x 10 000 litre tanks stores the greywater. This greywater is pumped into the irrigation system via a booster pump. Variable speed drives control the pump, and the necessary heat and dry run protection is present. Additionally, automatic flushing filters( to 130 microns) reduces filtering and maintenance requirements.
Variable speed drives on the pumps control and regulates pressure. Trees are irrigated with pressure compensated bubblers and a small lawn area is irrigated with rotory sprinklers with matched precipitation rates.
Flow sensors, on the irrigation system mainline, detects any surge in flow due to a broken pipe or sprinkler. The sensor sends signals that closes the master valve, eliminating further water wastage. A SMS alerts maintenance of the fault, which they can address immediately.
Irrigation Design | Irrigation Consulting | Cape Town, South Africa
Solving Challenge
Upington has extreme heat and so all drip pipe installation occurred early in the morning to mitigate pipe expansion/ contraction issues. Within this arid region, it’s especially important to manage water as a key resource. Water loss to evaporation is negligible when irrigating with a drip system. In order to make the theoretical benefits of drip irrigation a reality, supervision and snagging of construction confirmed proper installation. Just as importantly, a strict maintenance schedule is specified.
Project
In brief, the Upington site is an extremely arid area typical of the southern Kalahari Desert. Despite Upington’s location on the lower desert reaches of Orange River it’s assumed that even here, water resources shall become less available in the medium to long term future. Installation of soft and partial soft landscape occurred in courtyards, between the hospital building and staff housing areas.