Living and working in Balkan countries, we are very aware of hot summers and severe weather conditions. Roads and villages are flooded easily through heavy storms, when the rain descends as if it is a waterfall. Steep roads turn into rivers. Storm – or waste-water management, – Suds – ‘sustainable drainage system’. eh?!; this is nature…, not necessary. We have photos where we walk through Kotor in Wellington boots, with the water close to the top of them! At the time of extreme floods some years ago, we were planning our EcoHouse, we had become involved in the formation of the Montenegro Green Building Council. To learn more, I had also conversations with the World Green Building Council about this topic. Nature does what it does, but the knowledge was not there to use the available technology and so provide adequate solutions.
While we were designing with our Passivhaus Architect our EcoHouse, to Passivhaus Standard, in Montenegro, some years ago now,’ Water’ was very much on our mind. Urban sewage collection and treatment systems are rare – septic tanks are the primary disposal method for many urban houses. Water efficiency in Montenegro is not a concept which seems to be considered. At one stage, we looked at dry toilets.
When it is very hot in the summer, wildfires start easily in the mountains, and are very difficult to bring under control. One summer, when there were extensive fires along the coastal region, there was a serious fire in the mountain behind us which threatened to come down to the town. The local fire-fighters were clearly severely stretched. At last, two fire-fighting planes flew in and collected water by scooping it from the Unesco Boka Bay, then emptying the buckets over the fire. Local, older people thought the war had started again.
Our EcoHouse is built on a slope, with a height difference of 8 metres between the lower and higher sides. As usual in the region, the ground is very stony, with little soil. Creating a garden has been difficult. We decided to build a rainwater tank, fed from the main gutters off the house roof – Rainwater-harvesting, at 15m3, it holds sufficient water for about a month’s normal domestic use. In summer we use more as the garden needs more water for plants to survive, despite our growing more drought-tolerant plants. We safe water, it is so precious. Don’t waste WATER.
Published in Linked-in 21.08.2024