Gris – a water saving system for the real world

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Gris is an extremely simple greywater-system which can collect and recycle all the water you use during a shower. You can use this collected grey water for flushing the toilet, cleaning the house, for washing activities and even irrigation of plants if used with biocompatible soap. This way you can save at least 40 liter water/person/taking a shower in an average household which means 2 billion liter saved water per day in a 50+ million habitant country like Colombia or South Africa.

Decrease of potable water resources is growing to be a worldwide problem. California (US), South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala,  Spain, India, Pakistan, Syria, are some of the worst situations. The main reasons: climate change, deforestation and that infrastructure couldn’t keep up with the explosive growth of cities.

“São Paulo suffers the worst water crisis ever that its inhabitants remember. There are houses without water 12 hours a day, cafes have stopped serving coffee in the afternoon, hospitals seek emergency plans, giant drums up to 250 l have become an object of desire and neighboring communities impose their own rationing. If the situation continues as it is – the dry season begins in April – the citizens have to live with four or five days without water per week.” El País – 28/02/2015

It is not anymore about eco-consciousness but solving severe social conflicts.

It occurs many times in small towns that farmers who live closer to the water reservoir hijack the water flow to water their animals – however it is unethical to the community but if their animals die the farmers will starve to death either. The water problem creates conflicts that endanger whole communities.

There are thousands of water recycling products to lower the water consumption of households since the 1940s. And still barely anybody uses them – especially in countries in the worst situation.

The problem is that most of them are designed to be optimal and not to be realistic. These water recycle systems are too expensive (usually between 1000 and 15000 USD) for the average people in developing countries and too complicated to install. In most cases you need to rebuild your complete sanitary-system in your house.

You can’t convince millions of people to adopt a solution that is expensive or complicated to install. People only adopt a solution that doesn’t change their daily routine and as simple as a bucket. That’s why GRIS is a redesign of the bucket under the shower.

How it works?

Generally during a shower we use an average 40 liter of water each time. The concave form of 'Gris' collects this water. It also has a non-slip granular surface to avoid falls by slip. Gris is divided into 4 interlocking cells. After a shower you can easily lift up only the one you need to use without moving the whole 40 liter mass. Each cell is 10 liter which is the same size (and weight) of an average domestic bucket. This way you can easily flush your toilet with one unit or clean up the house or if you use proper shower gel you can also irrigate your garden with it.

This way you can save at least 40 liter water/person/taking a shower. In an average Brazilian family it is 60.000 liter water/year that is about 140 USD. Counting with its 60 million households, Brazil can save 2.4 billion liter water per day, 876 billion liter water per year and save 8.4 billion dollar per year for the Brazilian households that is 0,37% of Brazil GDP in 2013. Each Paulistano spends an average of 175 liters of water per day. WHO recommends 110 liters. The supply system of the city loses 29% of drinking water. With Gris 60% of the water shortage problem can be solved in Brazil.

We believe that Gris can be simple enough to be widely adoptable and cheap enough to really spread around the world to make a change.

If you'd like to learn more about Gris water saving system, please contact us at gris@igendesign.co