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Condor
03-14-2012, 05:41 PM
7513

Bermuda residents are the masters of survival when it comes to fresh water collecting.

Bermuda, unlike most of the modern world, has no source of fresh drinking water. They have learned to take advantage of rain to collect all the water they need to survive. They do this by fitting all thier houses and buildings with a special roof, designed to collect and capture rain water and keep it clean.

To build a traditional Bermudian roof, masons mortar rectangular slabs, or "slates," of local limestone to each other over a hip-roof frame. Then they apply more mortar over the top and edges of the slates, filling the joints and giving the roof its traditional stepped shape. Along the lower edges of the roof, they sculpt a long concrete trough for a gutter, which directs rainwater to a pipe that filters it and funnels it into a cistern buried alongside the house. Then they give the whole roof structure a thin wash of cement. Finally, to keep rainwater as clean as possible on its way to the cistern, they paint the roofs with special nontoxic paint (a modern replacement for traditional lime wash), which must be reapplied every two to three years.

The result is a strong, nearly self-supporting structure that holds its own against the weather while sending clean water into the tank. It's the best and cheapest way to supply fresh water — up to 30 gallons per person are needed per day — to the 60,000-plus residents of this tiny island nation. It's also what accounts for Bermuda's signature white rooftops, perfectly placed amid the palms and set off by the pastel houses for which the island is famous.

Rick
03-14-2012, 06:05 PM
Oh, snap! You grabbed that off the survivalist boards forum. Let's give credit when posting something from another site. Copyrights and all that.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=222384

Condor
03-14-2012, 06:25 PM
Rick I wrote that article with information Doug provided from his trip to Bermuda.
I know him, he's a good guy.

i message him to put a note on the bottom of it when hes back online so youl know.

SARKY
03-14-2012, 07:24 PM
Having done 3 six month deployments to Bermuda I can tell you it is not just the roofs that are used. There is a large section of the base out by the NASA station where the entire hill side has been covered and sealed with a short wall around it. It drains into a very large under ground cystern.

Rick
03-14-2012, 07:31 PM
Matters not to me. I just don't want Chris to receive a less than kind email. If it's yours, we're cool.

That's a slick setup they have. It's amazing the amount of water that can be collected off a roof.

Condor
03-14-2012, 09:46 PM
Matters not to me. I just don't want Chris to receive a less than kind email. If it's yours, we're cool.

That's a slick setup they have. It's amazing the amount of water that can be collected off a roof.

Understood sir.

It would be nice to see a picture of how they clean/filter the water before use. Even with all those precautions, there has got to be some cleanliness issues there with seagulls, etc...