Hose pipe bans and British made underground tanks

So after two dry Winters, the UK is facing water restrictions, affecting areas from the South coast right up to parts of Yorkshire. The last similar ban was back in Summer of 2007, when the Southern water companies issues hose pipe bans.

Some fact!
Water companies in England and Wales leaked more than 3.3bn litres a day in 2010/11, according to the regulator Ofwat.
Demand for water stands at around 17bn litres a day, according to industry body Water UK.

It would seem that the UK climate has changed over the last 20 or 30 years, with more extreme weather, since 2007, there has been a number of high profile flooding events and the focus on the management of water had shifted from water supply to the control of surface water run-off. In reality both of these issues are never going away and should be tackled together. Short terms views on either will never solve the overall problem of water management in the UK. When the hose pipe bans were announced during early March, much of the media started talking about the need to create some sort of "national water grid" in other words move water from areas where it is plentiful to essentially the South and South East. This would potentially mean an awful lot of civil engineering, at quite an environmental (and carbon) cost. There doesn't seem to be a proper debate that includes rainwater harvesting.

Taking a more local approach would seem a better option, providing there is enough water available. Rainwater harvesting as many of you know has emerged during the last 12-15 years in the UK, brought over largely from Germany. Importing storage tanks from Germany has always been one of the main criticisms aimed at rainwater harvesting.

Freerain's parent The Gusto Group has tackled this very issue by investing in a rotational moulding factory and purpose rainwater harvesting designed tank moulds. The range of underground tanks include the following features:

1) 1800 litres up to 10,000 litres
2) Single piece, no need for messy on site assembly
3) Made from virgin high strength polyethylene.
4) Installed without the need for concrete back fill or bases
5) Supplied with telescopic access shaft and pedestrian cover.

www.gustotanks.co.uk

Freerain is obviously a customer of the Gusto Group storage tanks and have a number of different control systems built around them available. Garden rainwater harvesting systems are proving very popular at the moment, as customers look to store significant quantities of water for garden use and "beat the hose pipe ban" Find the garden rainwater harvesting systems here.
Garden rainwater harvesting can be a very good way to get involved with collecting rainwater, as trying to re-plumb a house to serve toilets and washing machines to an existing can prove difficult.

Remember you can use a rainwater harvesting system in the garden with a hose pipe, providing the water company imposing the restrictions haven't supplied the water.

Brief history for Freerain and the Gusto Group.

Gusto Construction is an award winning private developer based in the East Midlands of England. Gusto Construction has built various environmentally friendly housing developments, whereby the houses are rated eco-excellent and some of these were built as long ago as 1999, when this standard of build was truely pioneering. With such a small market for environmental building products back then, the supply chain for the technologies was also difficult.

The most difficult was a rainwater harvesting system or a rainwater recycling system as it was known as. Freerain Ltd (formerally known as Gusto Products) was formed to meet the initial requirements of Gusto Construction Ltd. With other areas of the Gusto also forming, the Gusto Group of companies has been operating since around 2003.

Freerain Ltd was also a founder member of the UK rainwater harvesting association, which was formed to tackle the issue of standards and compliance within the industry.

Freerain initially began supplying Gusto Construction for its Millennium Green Development, but the high quality and ease of installation systems soon attracted attention from other developers and self-builders. Freerain quickly established itself as one of the market leaders in the UK.

Following on from several water saving related awards, larger projects began to consider rainwater harvesting. Commercial rainwater harvesting systems come in all shapes and sizes and with that we bespoke the design as necessary.