After reading about the current status of freshwater, it occurred to us that there was an ancient and reliable source of water collection that we should consider for at least our garden irrigation. Rainwater catchment systems are used in more than two million households worldwide and in more than 250,000 in the United States.
It really is quite a simple concept. For households in areas that are wet throughout the year, rainwater catchment can be used to either supplement the well or community water source, or can be a stand alone system; for those who live in low rainfall areas, water is collected during the rainy, wet season and used during the dry and drought periods for landscape irrigation. Rainwater is captured in runoff from roof gutters and by gravity flows into holding tanks. An inch of rainfall can produce 600 gallons of water per 1000 sq.ft of catchment area (the size of the roof that feeds the gutters).
It rained today. We watched the water fill our little pond and run off our gutters into the ground. Maybe by the next big rainfall, we'll have system set up that would have captured that precious resource and saved it for July when we'll really need it.
For more information about rainwater catchment.
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