New Rainwater Harvesting System at Kibbutz Gezer Education Center

Students and volunteers at Kibbutz Gezer help to position rain barrels

The installation of WRAP’s seventh rainwater harvesting project, a rain barrel system at Kibbutz Gezer Education Center located in central Israel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, was completed in March 2017. Gezer is a pluralistic community, with both Jews and non-Jews, observant and nonobservant, many active in developing better relations between Jews and Arabs. The Education Center has 100 children in pre-school/kindergarten and 80 youth in grades 1-12. The Center is located on a green campus in the center of the community with staff of 30 educators that view the outdoors as the real classroom.

The rain barrel system consists of a filter tank and five storage barrels, which can collectively hold up to 8,500 liters of rainwater. The rainwater is collected from roofs and directed into the rain barrels where it is then used for toilet flushing and gardening at the Center.

Students help with installation of rainwater system pump

The rainwater harvesting system supplements the strong environmental education program already in place at the Kibbutz, strengthening the students’ connection to water, nature, and our limited resources. Students will be involved with the care and maintenance of the system, measuring rainfall and water usage, and learning about the importance of water in the environment. WRAP will work with the Kibbutz to foster relationships with its other partner schools, initially through an exchange of information, and subsequently through personal relationships.

WRAP plans to expand upon the rainwater harvesting system installed at Kibbutz Gezer to include an adjacent school building. The expansion will result in the water collected to be used more efficiently and additional children (1st and 2nd graders) to be included in the educational program. The expansion is tentatively scheduled for November 2017. Total estimated cost is $2,800.