Rainwater Harvesting

Southside Shopping Centre flushed by the rain

Southside Shopping Centre has launched a new rainwater harvesting system to provide the centre with a sustainable energy source while significantly reducing its impact on the environment.

Rainwater collected by the system will be channelled into the existing water tank, whilst discarding leaves and other debris, which will then be used to flush Southside’s public and staff toilets.

Fresh water is a limited and precious resource that is often taken for granted. While many areas of the developing world lack supplies of safe drinking water, the UK squanders water by tipping most of it down the drain.

The water collected by the rainwater harvesting system doesn’t need to be treated so it’s eco friendly whilst helping the centre to significantly reduce its filtered water consumption from the mains supply.

Neil Churchill, is delighted by the investment: “We wanted to reduce the negative impact the centre has on the environment, in a really significant way. The rainwater harvesting system is the first step in what we hope will be one of many environmental schemes.

“It may seem a small step with the water only being used to flush our toilets, however with thousands of shoppers through our doors every day, that adds up to a lot of flushes! A single toilet uses up to 13 litres in one flush, so it’s a lot of water!”

“Now we have successfully invested in the scheme, not only will it reduce the damage to the environment, it will also save the centre some money too, which can then be used to develop similar initiatives across the whole of the centre.”