Residential neighborhood saves precious drinking water

In the Waterfront neighborhood in Harderwijk, 95 newly built homes are being equipped with a Joosten JustNimbus rainwater system installed in the crawl space. This is directly related to requirements set by the municipality in the tender, challenging builders and developers to make the neighborhood as sustainable as possible.

Every year, we flush 200 billion liters of clean drinking water down the toilet.

Phasing out gas has been the standard for several years now, and in this part of Waterfront, the municipality has already installed a district heating network powered by residual heat from the nearby wastewater treatment plant. New for Harderwijk, the region, and Van Wijnen was the requirement to reduce drinking water use in the homes by at least 20 percent. You can’t achieve that with just a rain barrel in the garden.

Reusing rainwater in and around the home

Rainwater flows from the roof, gutters, and downpipes into the storage bag in the crawl space. Each bag holds approximately 3,000 liters. The rainwater collected in the storage bag is used by residents for flushing toilets, running the washing machine, and watering the garden.

Too much or too little rainwater

Excess rainwater is drained through the garden and underground pipes, as well as rainwater from the streets, to the so-called parking vault: a large parking area with special drainage sand underneath to allow rainwater to seep into the soil. During prolonged dry periods, the storage bag is automatically refilled from the regular drinking water system.