As the climate continues to change worldwide, water conservation, storage, and collection are of utmost importance. The need for harvesting life-saving rainwater is growing exponentially, as increasing incidents of drought and natural disasters create unreliable or tainted water and shortages.
Millions of people around the world rely on rainwater catchment as their ONLY source of water. Catching rain is a long-standing, widely accepted, and normal practice. It can be a simple barrel that captures water for use in the garden or can be an advanced rainwater catchment system that generates purified drinking water. Rainwater catchment equipment is designed to divert the initial flow of water in a seamless, automated fashion to continuously supply a home with clean, potable water.
Considerations for Getting a Rainwater Catchment System
An efficient, long-lasting catchment system will have easily customizable and scalable components, including filtration components, a holding tank, and rain-harvesting equipment. Remember these 3 factors to achieve a well-functioning system:
1. The roof or collection surface must be made of non-toxic materials.
2. As water is captured, it must flow through a rain-harvesting system for preliminary filtration before going to a holding tank.
3. Water then must go through a moderate or heavy-duty filtration system, based on the degree of purification needed.
A proper rainwater filtering system will turn rain into pure, safe water suitable for drinking and all household uses. It will be free of unwanted bacteria, concentrated tannic acid, heavy metals, or chemical residues that may be present in unfiltered rainwater.
Applications for Rainwater Catchment Systems
Many of the world’s islands and sought-after vacation destinations have no ground water source. Dry and arid terrain with climates prone to drought may see ground water and wells disappear. People in every climate zone can and do collect rain for use in their day-to-day lives. Use of water storage and rainwater catchment systems has proven to be an effective and reliable source for water all year. In fact, the practice is crucial in many places.
We have seen first-hand that one good gully washer from a rainstorm can fill a catchment tank big enough to provide months of water to a typical home, in minutes. With as little as ten inches of rain per year, this method can result in large amounts of water to avoid depleting groundwater reserves.
