Cape Town - While Capetonians are starting to panic as Day Zero approaches, a crafty Mitchells Plain couple are making waves on social media with their innovative water-saving device.
Qanita and Labieq Daniels say while everyone is worrying about queuing for 25 litres of water a day, they only use five litres for their family of three to shower.
Labieq, 36, says while looking for a device to keep his car clean last year, he came across a garden pump sprayer which uses only two litres of water.
“It was just by chance that I bought it. Then one day I was cleaning the car and thought to myself: ‘I could actually shower with this’,” he says.
“So I put hot water in it and I could actually clean my whole body. We started to use it more and more and then we saw a bigger one that uses five litres.”
Qanita says they quickly realised that five litres was enough for both of them and their three-year-old daughter, Arwa, to have a shower each day.
“The five-litre one was about R200, but we have saved so much money. We have cut our water bill by 50% and our electricity bill by 60% because we no longer need a geyser. We even use it to wash our dishes and we only use about 500ml to clean all the dishes,” she says.
FRESH AND CLEAN: Labieq Daniels gets a good through wash in the shower.
The Daily Voice visited the couple at their Woodlands home where they gave us a demonstration on how to use the sprayer.
Labieq explains that once water goes into the sprayer, the user is required to pump the bottle, which creates pressure.
“Then you will see it lightly sprays water and you can use this to wet your body. This is way less than you normally use to shower. We also use it in the morning to take abdas for our morning prayers,” he says.
The couple further save water by doing their laundry by hand most days.
They shared their water device idea on Facebook and say they were overwhelmed by the positive responses from Capetonians who had tried their method and agreed it was good.
The post quickly went viral on various water-saving Facebook pages, garnering hundreds of shares.
“We are basically living like it is Day Zero. It is coming and we must prepare,” says Quanita.
“I posted on Facebook and a man asked if my husband and I wash each other and I said ‘yes we do, but we try not to because nine months from now we might have another body to wash’,” she giggles.
The garden pump sprayer is available at major retailers. A two-litre unit can cost R50 to R100, while the five-litre version sells for about R200.
Daily Voice