Kulim innovation to enhance reuse of rainwater

KULIM: An innovative product created by the Kulim Municipal Council (MPKK) to purify rainwater holds good prospects for the reuse of rainwater for various domestic purposes.

Their Keep Free (K-Free) filter has proven to be effective in removing impurities from rainwater, thus rendering the water suitable for non-drinking uses like watering the garden and washing cars, and even for washing dishes and flushing toilets.

The filter entails a simple design and can be easily installed in existing rainwater harvesting and reuse systems.

Developed by MPKK's Innovative and Creative Group – whose members are involved in carrying out research into green practices – the K-Free filter-installed rainwater harvesting system has great potential to yield sustainable water management practices.

Not only will it be able to ease existing pressure on treated water resources, it will also keep in check rainwater run-offs into drains and rivers, thus reducing the occurrence of flash floods and pollution risks.

To test the efficacy of the filter, the group fitted it to the rainwater harvesting system installed at a public toilet facility here.

The yearly water bill generated by this particular facility reduced substantially from RM1,237.50 to RM587.56, proving that the K-Free-fitted rainwater harvesting system had succeeded in reducing the usage of treated water.

“Our K-Free filter is simple in terms of its design, yet it's capable of making a big impact on saving (treated) water,” said architect and group facilitator Mohd Nazri Harun.

The group also found that the K-Free filter was a better alternative to the ones currently available in the market, most of which were not only expensive but were complicated to use and needed a lot of maintenance.

This discouraged commercial building owners from installing rainwater harvesting and reuse systems in their buildings although they were required to do so under local authority regulations.

MPKK Engineering Department assistant civil engineer Farah Izah Abu Hassan, who also heads the Innovative and Creative Group, told Bernama it was such a shame to see rainwater being wasted when it can be harvested and channelled into other uses, thus reducing public dependence on treated water.

“Each time we flush the toilet, we use nine litres of water. Imagine the quantity of (treated) water that can be saved if all commercial buildings used (harvested) rainwater in their toilets,” she said.

A rainwater harvesting system consists of a pipe through which rainwater run-off from the roof is channelled into a storage tank for reuse. A standard-sized tank can store about 400 gallons of rainwater.

According to MPKK regulations, all commercial buildings, as well as bungalows and semi-detached houses, with roof areas exceeding 100 square metres must install rainwater harvesting and reuse systems at their premises.

Pointing out that it took them about six months to develop their K-Free filter, Farah Izah said it could be attached to the existing UPVC (unplasticised polyvinyl chloride) downpipe that carries rainwater from the roof of a building or house to the drain at the ground level.

Measuring 540mm in length and sporting a diameter of 160mm, the filter makes use of the gravitational force to separate the impurities from the rainwater and enable the clean water to flow into a separate, smaller, pipe connected to the storage tank. - Bernama