One thing that is affecting so many of us around the world is the scarcity of water. Mexico, and Zihuatanejo, are no exception to this problem. Zihuatanejo has had less than 70% of its normal rainfall over the last 5 years. This is a problem across much of Mexico and some places have been impacted much worse. We at Casa Arcoiris are very aware of this problem and have thought very hard about how important water conservation is, our impact on the local water supply, and how we can help our guests to minimize their impact on the local environment
Reduce, reuse and recycle are the principles we used in designing our water systems. We reduce our water usage by installing water saving water fixtures and planting greenery that is adapted to our climate. We reuse by capturing rainwater that falls on our property to be used for our watering needs. We recycle by using gray water for watering our plants. Please read further for details about how we do each.
Reducing our water usage for day to day activities is our first step in reducing our impact on the regions water supplies. This means that we have invested in low flow toilets, water efficient shower heads, a water efficient washing machine, and installing a cartridge pool filter vs. a sand pool filter. Another feature we have installed is a recirculating pump for our hot water. We have a single solar hot water tank on the roof of our hotel which is 5 stories up from the lowest point where we use hot water. That means that it can take up to 4 minutes for hot water to reach a shower and potentially all that water would be wasted as our guests run the water until the hot water arrives. Our solution has been to install plumbing that returns from the lowest hot water tap back up to the solar hot water tank. Periodically throughout the day a pump recirculates cooled water from the pipes back into the hot water tank which also brings hot water down closer to where it may be used. We use this method rather than instantaneous tankless water heaters because the energy usage is much lower for the pump.
To further reduce our impact on the local water supply, we re-use rainwater that falls on our property. We cover approximately 80% of our buildings with metal roofing and fit them with gutters that delivers the water to a cistern with 30,000 liters of capacity. We then pump this water to our main cistern and roof top tank as needed. This means that for the rainy months we greatly reduce or eliminate our use of city water which comes from local aquifers. Every bit of water that isn't pumped from the aquifer during the rainy season is all that more that remains available when it is most needed. An additional benefit of this is that we help reduce flooding downhill from us during the rainy season. Without our rain collection system all that rain would run off our impermeable buildings and into the streams and storm drainage systems rather than soaking into the ground. By collecting this water instead we moderate the runoff and contribute to flood mitigation during heavy rain events. One additional benefit for us to collecting rainwater for our usage is that it has little to no mineral content. The water from the city is pulled from the ground and consequently is mineral laden which manifests itself in calcium deposits throughout our plumbing system and plumbing fixtures. The calcium deposit requires regular maintenance to prevent blockages, unsightly buildups and higher detergent usage.
On the recycling front we have installed grey water systems for buildings. All the water from showers and sinks are diverted to our grey water discharge which eventually ends up watering fruit trees (mango, starfruit, guayaba and banana) and other ornamental plants that we have on the property. Not only does this reduce the amount of water we would use from local water systems but it also reduces the amount of water that gets sent to the sewer system and reduces strain on those resources. In addition the water gets recycled in the fruit we consume.
So how has all of these measures improved our water usage over the years? I will note first of all that when we first opened we only had 2 rooms and last year we expanded to 5 rooms total. When we expanded to 5 rooms is also when we added our big rainwater collection system. Since July 2020 we have been able to reduce our annual water usage from the city by 40% and our usage per person by 75%. We are proud of the progress we have made but we are also aware that we still have room to improve. Our two pools on property use a good deal of water just due to evaporation. We have ideas about how we can continue to improve and we hope to update you in the coming years with those continued improvements.
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