Brown Blog #2
- Team 2
- Oct 30, 2018
- 2 min read
The island of Bermuda is 600 miles off the coast of South Carolina, too far away for fresh drinking water to be transported from the mainland. It is only 20 square miles, there are no springs, streams or rivers, and the few lakes are saline from saltwater infiltration. The small amount of available groundwater has to be extracted from on the small layer it occupies on top of the salt water. In Bermuda, all of the private drinking water is collected from roof rain collection systems that have been used there for over 400 years. There is no public water service available. This is possible because the island receives 55 inches of rain per year, and it’s relatively evenly distributed. The rainfall consistency is important, because if there were dry seasons and heavy rain seasons, the water would have to be stored in larger volumes for longer periods of time, and rationed, causing storage and quality problems. Rain water collection saves the island energy, space and money when compared to a desalination plant, which they have six of, creating 13,500 cubic meters per day between them. This is mostly for the hotels and public facilities. (BBC).
I work on a sailboat, and in June 2018, when we docked in Bermuda, the first thing I noticed was the houses. They all looked similar, but it wasn’t the vibrant colors, which varies between homes. All of the rooves are the same, all white, with a unique step pattern that I had never seen before (photo 1). The roof surfaces are painted with a coated paint that doesn’t contaminate the water. Historically they used lime mortar which as antibacterial properties (BBC). Regulations are in place on how often the rooves need to be cleaned and painted to protect the water quality. It is also required that for each square foot of roof, there must be 8 cubic feet of storage tank space. The steps are in place to slow the rain velocity during large storm events. (photo 2). After the water travels through the gutter system (photo 2) it is stored in large tanks under the houses, both for keeping it cool and because space is limited on the small island. Look closely at photo 1 to see how well constructed and complex the gutter systems are. This is unlike the types of gutters typically used in the United States, with the purpose of directing water away from walls and basements. These gutters and rooves are designed to be as effective as possible in collecting all available rainwater. Along with the roof collection, there are larger collection slopes on the ground (photo 3). This method is not used as often currently because of the high real estate value and small undeveloped land area.
Sources
All photos were taken by Oliver Brown, in June 2018.
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