What IS our solution?
Our solution to our water usage problem is a rain catchment system that can provide water for the various different māla on campus.
As we mentioned before, nearly 30% of the water used on campus goes to landscaping. This includes grassy lawns as well as the māla on campus.
As we mentioned before, nearly 30% of the water used on campus goes to landscaping. This includes grassy lawns as well as the māla on campus.
The Evolution of our Solution
Idea 1
Originally, we came up with this fancy watering system that would use gravity to water a māla and then pump that water back up to the top of the māla to be recycled and reused.
The system would be set up on a hill so that slope would help the water flow downward naturally. The water would flow from the top to the bottom of the māla and then be caught by either a bin or gutter-like contraption, and then pumped back up to the top either by solar power or manually. This was just a prototype and it ended up being thrown out because 1) it was too complicated and 2) we changed our idea to do xeriscaping instead. |
Idea 2
Our second idea was to do a small scale xeriscape area with the intention of proposing that instead of trying to up-keep grassy lawns that have little purpose, we could plant dryland kalo, ʻuala, and other native plants and trees. One benefit of this idea was that the native plants could act as ground cover and would require less water than grass. Another benefit was the water used would serve a purpose which would be to grow kalo, ʻuala, and native plants that could be used to feed our haumāna and kumu or be used by Hawaiian Ensemble. This would lessen the amount of water used for landscaping as well as allow for the water to be used more sustainably by feeding native plants and trees.
This idea fell through as well because when we talked to Uncle Kai Waineʻe, the head groundskeeper, he said that an obstacle with this idea was the fact that this māla would need maintenance. Because most of us are seniors and we wouldn't have anyone to mālama the māla when we're gone, we decided against this idea and adjusted our project yet again to focus simply on water. |
Idea 3
Our third and final idea was to place buckets under the rain gutters on the sides of the stair leading down to ʻAkahi Dining Hall to act as a rain catchment. It was much simpler to focus only on water because we could launch our project without needing to create a new māla that would require maintenance.
This way we could collect rain water, take data on how much water we could catch, as well as use the water to water the different māla on campus. With this idea, we didn't have to create a new māla but instead collect water and use it to feed the māla already on campus. |
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