Oleh to drastically reduce nation’s water usage

DesertCube, a new Australian technology, keeps urinals clean and fresh with only 5% of the water.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
A veteran Australian oleh has brought to Israel a technology from his country of origin in an effort to enable substantial water savings throughout the country.
Zeev Slonim, who made aliya from Australia in 1989, came across the DesertCube shortly after he started looking into water-saving devices. He went back to Australia to meet the developers and introduced it to Israel about a year ago.
As opposed to chemicals, the DesertCube is a small blue cube filled with bacteria, thereby rendering the need for flushing after every use unnecessary.
The urinal does still need to be cleaned out once a day with about four liters of water, but otherwise the water can be turned off.
So far, the DesertCube is in use at the IKEA stores in Rishon Lezion and Netanya, as well as in a number of smaller malls, Slonim told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. The Tsofim-based company also has trials running in various industrial and commercial buildings.
One cube is sufficient for one urinal for 1,400 uses, which is about a month to six weeks, Slonim said. The environmentally friendly bacteria in the cube work on the uric acid to keep the urinal clean and remove the odors.
Slonim said the DesertCube has several advantages over other similar solutions like the waterless urinal.
“This is not a waterless urinal. A waterless urinal means taking out the existing urinal and replacing it. The DesertCube can be put in any existing urinal and the water can be shut off to it,” he told the Post. The cube saves 95% of the water the urinal is using, except for the small amount needed to flush the urinal out once a day.
Second, the “bacteria in the cube are extremely effective at neutralizing the bad odors that emanate from a urinal.
Some urinals can even look clean and still smell.”
According to Slonim, the cubes have been in widespread use in Australia for a decade, the UK for seven years and the US for four years.
More information can be found at www.desertcube.co.il.