Did you know that only 0.3% of the total amount of water present on Earth is spring water, fit for human use (the rest being mainly ocean water, making up for 97% of the whole)?
What with climate change and the growing intensity of urban densification in Mauritius, finding innovative and effective solutions when it comes to water- and energy-saving has become a priority for urban developers on the Moka Smart City team.
1. Water savings and reuse
To this aim, “Moka, le coeur de l’île” designed a plan that would allow for smarter and more responsible use of water resources. The idea would be to link every company or home located in Moka Smart City to two types of networks:
1. A severage network
2. A rainwater-harvesting network
This project would first be tested in the Telfair and Helvétia neighbourhoods, before spreading to all the city’s residential and commercial areas.
2. How does it work?
Through the sewerage system, all wastewater would be redirected to a water treatment plant, where it would be filtered and taken to a holding pond, also designed to welcome and store rainwater. These basins would what’s more act as retainers preceding rainy periods.
Following this, the water thus stocked would be redistributed through a non-drinkable water network to residential and commercial areas of the Smart City for the personal use of its inhabitants. Uses may include plant-watering for example, on an individual but also a collective scale, since communal green areas such as the Telfair park or La Promenade (a wide pedestrian avenue) will come to be watered in this way.
These new measures would allow for significant reduction of the city’s overall water consumption!
For more Smart Solutions, check out the similarly-titled column on Moka’s blog.