The big change in catching and storing rain water today is that we now have rain water storage tanks, as opposed to underground cisterns or stone channels for moving water into storage ponds. Although different methods, the concept behind the thinking is the same, so why should we be storing rainwater?
- MONEY
Rain is FREE. While it might not cost a significant amount of money – money is money and let’s say it again. Rain is FREE. Some people who harvest rainwater use it to irrigate their gardens, and this constitutes about 20% of the water in which an average household uses. You could catch thousands of gallons of rainwater a year, and store it for later use, meaning we are not paying to water our plants or anything else you might want to use it for!
- CONSERVING RESOURCES
Did you know that fresh water only makes up a tiny percentage of the water on the planet? Conventional sources of water, such as lakes are drying up from overuse and water scarcity has become a HUGE problem around the world. We ALL have the ability to catch and store rainwater, and we ALL have the potential to catch over a thousand gallons of water from an inch of rain.
- SAVE ENERGY
Additionally, to water being a resource, having water plumbed into our homes requires us to use many other resources to access it. We must pump the water and move it around with fossil fuel energy. With water catchment systems for example, rain water tanks can collect the water coming down the gutter downspout and store it.
- BACK UP THE SYSTEM
While it is incredible how easily we all have access to water, it is undeniable how helpless we are when those modern systems fail. Most of us have a back-up plan that probably means a couple of gallons of water, that is bottled up in the shed or garage. Each installed tank can store hundreds of gallons of clean water, that can be used to flush the toilet, clean, water the garden, wash cars or can easily be made drinkable.
- CLEANING NATURALLY
The natural water cycle is the best method for cleaning water. Modern water sanitation involves usually a number of different chemicals which can alter the taste of the water. However, rainwater has been cleaned naturally. The water evaporates, leaving behind pollutants and therefore is clean. There are even flush components for roof catchment systems that divert the first few gallons of rainwater so that the roof is cleaned before rainwater storage begins.
- IMPROVING IRRIGATION
Since people most regularly use rainwater systems for irrigating the garden, it really makes sense because rainwater is so much better for plants. Plants don’t need or like the abundance of chemicals such as chlorine, that is put into municipal water to make it safe for drinking. They’d much rather the cleaner rainwater. The soil will also be healthier and healthier soil means healthier plants and healthier plants means healthier people.
- PREVENT FLOODING
Rainwater catchment systems help us mitigate flooding. This would be much more of the case if more people used the rainwater catchment systems rather than draining water away and overwhelming the streams and rivers that now carry polluted water away, we could be storing it in tanks, soaking it into our gardens and utilizing as much water as possible. We should be catching rainwater and we should be using it, there are many ways for us to do this by using tanks. Catching rain water could help with water shortages and could save you money!