Room 5 Project Brief
Water and Sustainability
Rain Water Tank
June 2009

• Our Take Action project focus is water and sustainability.
• We walked around and used a map of our school to identify where we see water being
wasted at our school that could be collected and used in a rain water tank.
PLUS MINUS INTERESTING
Some of the vegetable gardens are doing well and
We have vegetable gardens, which We noticed when we walked around some of them have lost a lot of vegetables. We
our school that there was a lot of have been learning about water supply in the city
we will be able to harvest the water not going anywhere around the compared to the country. We realise that the
vegetables to eat. Scout Hall. country has a more sustainable way of supplying
water, which we could copy.
What are the main Can we take action
How?
issues of concern? to solve this issue.
We could collect water off the roof, into
There is water that is not going into a
storm water drain. Yes. a water tank, which we could use to
water our plants.
Nanumea, Timothy, Semisi

Take Action project Brief.
What is to be done? We are going to put some spouting on the roof of the Scout Hall to
collect rain water off the roof to go into a rain water tank.
We are going to collect water and use it on plants and the gardens we’ve made and to prevent
water from going to the storm water drain. Using a water tank. This should prevent the grass getting
wet from the toilets.
Why should it be done? So that most of the water that falls at our school does not go to waste
and we can be more sustainable. We will be helping the environment by collecting water that could
be going down storm water drains. We are helping to prevent flooding.
Criteria
1. The Scout Hall site must be “prepared” to ensure the water will not go to waste.
2. We need to seek permission and include our school in the process.
3. Create a plan to ensure that the spouting and the water tank are looked after when they are installed.
How will this help the environment?
We are helping because the water that we collect is being used to water the plants in our school. By doing this, we are more sustainable. The water does not have to be sent to the water treatment plant or to travel along pipes to get
to our taps. We are not using electricity or chemicals to produce the water.
Allan, Ata, JR

Planning to achieve the brief
Project - Rain water tank
Timeframe- We are hoping to complete this before
the end of term three.
Budget - we need to do some research on what we
need and how much it will cost. We need to seek help to
get money for our project. We also need to talk to Miss
Buckley about what our school can give us.
David, Nikolao, Martin

Our proposed rain water tank plan
1. We need to ask permission from Miss Buckley if we can go ahead with the project.
We need to talk to her about who owns the Scout Hall and what the process is going
to be for us to allowed to go ahead with our project. We need to complete numbers
2, 3, 5, 6, 7 before we talk to her.
2. We need to research what type of water tank we need (Isaac, Deng & Sydney)
3. We need to decide on the best place to put the tank (Martin, Maseiga, Kham Za)
4. We need to research how much spouting we need and what kind of spouting will
suit our needs We need to go and visit Bunnings and ask someone to teach us about spouting and what we
might need for our project.
5. We need to research what size tank we need (Philip, Filimino, Sio)
6. We need to measure the space we want to put the spouting in (Jaydon, Timothy, Teuila)
7. We need to put together a plan of what we think it will look like (LIlly, Nikolao, Nanumea)
8. Then we can research the price of things we need and where we can get them from
9. We need to let the school know what our intentions are
10. We need to research and ask for help from tradespeople and people who could
donate money etc
Weimannia, Isaac, Tania

Plan of our Scout Hall
Jaydon, Chris, Javagn

Ideas to help us decide where to put the water tank
Areas Advantages Disadvantages
We could collect more water
and it’s where most of the It would be in the way of
Middle water goes and it can also where people play soccer
prevent around the scout hall and the tank might break
from flooding
We would need a pipe
It wouldn’t be in the way because of the awning
Left side and the awning can and we’re not using pipes
shelter the tank we’re using spouting
There would be no shelter
It would be a good area
but Richard said that if we
because it’s straight and the
Right side spouting would be easy to
get a light coloured plastic
tank the water would still
clean be cool

We need 500L of water in our tank to last a dry spell of 4 weeks during the
Summer when there’s no rain. So we worked it by...
5days x 5L/day=5 x 5=25/week. 25L x 4=100L/4 weeks. 5 classes x 100L=500L.
But the tank won’t necessarily be full, so our tank could be bigger than this or
maybe it doesn’t need to be this big during January because we’re not at
school. We have collected data about the average rainfall in our area for each
month of the year.
April 165mm March 525mm Feb 149.5mm Jan= NO Rain
Dec 104mm Nov 71mm Oct 137mm Sep 144mm
Aug 262mm
July 404mm June 328.5mm May 205mm
We have calculated the area of one side of the roof to be 118 square metres.
We have sent this information to Richard so he could help us to work out how
long it would take to fill the tank.
We have not yet worked out the size of the tank we need yet because we are waiting
for a reply from Richard.
Toeutu, Fatu, Kham Za, Sio

Websites we could use to buy a water tank
http://www.devan.co.nz/ - Devan Group
http://www.tanks.co.nz/- Bailey Tanks
http://www.tanksalot.co.nz/- Tanks Alot
Hibiscus tanks-0800 428 265
http://sites.yellow.co.nz/site/uniclear/- Uniclear Tanks
http://www.galloway.co.nz/-Galloway international
http://www.fibreglasstanks.co.nz/-Fibreglass Tanks
http://www.megason.co.nz/- Megason Limited

This is what our tank could look like

http://www.hydroflow.co.nz/
The unique corrugations on the side walls of the Promax tank range give both extra strength
and contemporary look. Added bonus, proven fact. Strong polyethylene construction requires
no maintenance and no tainted tast
PM450
450ltr tank
Diameter - 880mm
Height - 820mm
Outlet - 20mm
PM1000
1000ltr tank
Diameter - 1030mm
Height - 1420mm
Outlet - 20mm
PM2000
2000ltr tank
Diameter - 1300mm
Height - 1735mm
Outlet - 25mm

http://sites.yellow.co.nz/site/wilsonplastics/
Storage%20Tank.html
ALL NEW
Polyethylene liquid Storage Tank
The TT1200 captures rain water
for recycling by fitting snugly
under any eave with your building
downpipe connecting directly into
it. It's 2m+ height makes it ideally
suited for gravity-fed garden
soaker hoses in both urban and
rural environments.
• Model: TT 1200
• Capacity: 1200 Litres
• Max. Height: 2160mm
• Diameter: 890mm
• Weight: 33 kg

http://www.devan.co.nz/
Devan Water Tanks are suitable for agricultural, commercial and domestic
applications. They are very competitively priced, extensively developed and
tested, and come with a 20 year warranty. Their generous material weight,
modern range of colours, and minimal installation requirements easily make
these tanks your first choice.
Capacity: 1,000 litres (220 gallons)
Width: 875mm
Height: 2.02 metres
Weight: 30kg
Outlet: 2 x 50mm (2 inch)
BSP fitting.
Capacity: 4,550 litres (1,000 gallons)
Width: 1.9 metres
Height: 2.0 metres
Weight: 112.5kg
Outlet: 1 x 50mm (2 inch)
S/S BSP fittings

http://
www.rainharvesting.com.
Corrosion resistant and sturdy, fibreglass tanks are a relatively
expensive but long-lasting option.
Site Preparation : Compacted cracker dust or compacted cement
stabilised sand or concrete pad
In Ground : Consult the manufacturer
Guarantee : Ask your supplier for a written one prior to purchase
Repairable : Yes, consult the manufacturer.
Suitability
Popular due to its lightweight material which
makes for easy site preparation and
installation. Poly tanks are now the most
common for household use and come in a
variety of shapes, sizes and colours.
Site Preparation : A base of cracker dust or
sand
In Ground : Yes, consult the manufacturer
Guarantee : 25 years, ask for the
manufacturers guarantee
Repairable : Yes, consult the manufacturer

Our meeting with Miss Buckley
We need to be able to share the following ideas with her:
Where we are thinking of putting the tank
Our plan, with measurements of the Scout Hall
The kinds of tanks we are thinking of using
The size of the tank we are thinking of getting
Places where we can get rain water tanks
We need to ask her the following questions:
Who owns the Scout Hall?
Are we allowed to put a rain water tank near the Scout Hall?
Can the Scout Hall be mended?
If we find out the cost of going ahead with this project, will the school be able to
pay for it or pay for some of it, if we can get some help from other places?

Planning to achieve the brief
How do we best achieve criteria two?
Resources?
Tools?

Planning to achieve the brief
How do we best achieve criteria three?
Resources?
Tools?