Water Resilience Project
We are in the middle of a significant project to improve the resilience of our water supply. The most recent hot and dry summer was a reminder of the need to improve how we use and manage the precious resource that is water.
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In January 2024, we completed urgent work to restore our main water supply, replacing it with half a kilometre of new piping. We also installed new taps around the garden to make accessing water easier.
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We are now well underway with building a rainwater harvesting, storage and distribution system that will reduce our reliance on mains water altogether.
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We are very grateful for contributions from local businesses, as well as two grants from WLG Community and Environment Fund and a contribution from Wellington City Council's Stone Soup fund. Donations of materials, funds and labour have made this project possible.
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To find out more or get involved, get in touch.
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This project has only been possible with generous support from:
Phase 1 - Restore Mains Supply
In January 2023, we dug trenches and laid new pipework to draw mains water from a supply point half a kilometre down the hill from the garden. With help from an army of volunteers and funds from WLG Airport, we restored supply just as our rainwater tanks were running out.
Phase 2 - Greenhouse roof repair
The roof of our large greenhouse lets us capture lots (and lots!) of rainwater. When we found that a large section of it was degrading beyond repair and the guttering needed replacing, the team from RoofIT stepped in to help, donating labour and some of the materials.
Phase 3 - Rainwater harvesting, storage, and diversion
We are using Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) tanks as the backbone of our water collection system. IBC tanks are inexpensive compared with other water tanks, readily available, stackable, and easy to carry and manoeuvre around the garden. Each holds 1000L and with 7 tanks now ready to be hooked up, we will have ample capacity. They're a great option for home gardens too. Just keep them out of direct sunlight to avoid algae build-up.​ Our IBC tanks will be located behind the greenhouse where they can collect rainwater piped from the greenhouse roof.
This phase involves digging out space to make the tanks lower than the greenhouse guttering, planning where to locate taps around the garden to make best use of the rainwater, and running pipework to connect the tanks with garden taps. A lot of digging!
