Get ready — a new cafe/marketplace and splash pad is coming to The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in the spring of 2025!
The Zoo’s new splash pad is sure to be a cool addition! This eco-friendly feature boasts a recirculating system that captures, cleans, filters, and reuses water. Additionally, in the spring of 2025, visitors can look forward to a new café/marketplace with a stunning view of Bighorn Mountain!
Escape from the heat is essential for both our summer guests and our year-round Coachella Valley residents, and the splash pad offers a unique opportunity to engage Zoo visitors in learning about conservation. At The Living Desert, thoughtful planning and sustainability are at the heart of everything we do. In designing the new splash pad, the team we partnered with are experts specializing in the meticulous development of a design that ensures optimal water conservation.
Why Water Conservation Matters: Did you know that the average American household of four consumes a staggering 82 gallons/day/person, that’s over 300 gallons of water per day! That’s over 9,500 gallons per month! Notably, 70% of this usage occurs indoors, including showers/baths, running water, flushing toilets, and washing dishes, with the remaining 30% attributed to outdoor watering. In arid regions, such as ours, these figures may be even higher due to landscape irrigation and pools.
While most of these uses require the water to be pumped to a sewer treatment plant, this will process the waste water for landscape purpose as it is non-potable.
The Living Desert’s upcoming splash pad will feature a state-of-the-art recirculating system. This system will rely on a sophisticated water treatment process designed to capture, filter, and reuse the water from the splash pad. Remarkably, this means that even if a splash pad were to operate for several hours each day, it would still use less water than a typical family of four.
Moreover, the water features selected for The Living Desert’s splash pad have been meticulously designed for low flow, and the splash pad offers on-demand activation with sequencing. This means that an interactive activator must be pressed by a player to initiate water flow, thereby minimizing water usage during operation.
Through these measures, we are not only enhancing our visitor experience, but also advancing our mission of environmental education and conservation practices.
As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of these exciting enhancements, we invite you to stay tuned for the latest updates on all the new developments at The Living Desert. Be sure to follow us on social media @TheLivingDesert to stay informed and connected with everything happening at the Zoo!
