Principles And Construction 7:
Water Systems

The house has two systems, one for providing water, and one for handling water wastewater.

Providing Water

The house has a well, and an electric pump driven by a generator pumps water into a holding tank.

Handling Wastewater

Unlike a traditional suburban house, the Potters' house is not connected to a city sewer system with its great centralised sewage-treatment plant. But unlike a traditional rural house, it has no septic field, with its tank and water-distributing pipes.

Large containers containing soil and plants--'planters'--accept 'greywater' from the sink and shower and laundry. This water contains soap remains and food wastes, but no human waste. The greywater flows through the platers, where plants take up the water to use in their own internal circularion. The wastes carried in the water turn out to be quite suitable for the plants--as nutrients. Excess water runs outside.

A composting toilet accepts human waste.

In a flushing toilet, human waste would be combined with water for transport: it would become 'blackwater'. Most of the precautions taken around sewage systems are intended to prevent blackwater from contaminating food sources or other water sources before it can be treated. Since traditional sewer systems uncritically accept all waste presented to them, they must be both large and carefully-built.

In the Potters' house, human waste does not enter the wastewater system.

Next: the construction of the planters.

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