How to Harvest Rainwater

Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Elaine

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Not all places in the world have an abundant supply of water, one reason why many families today think of inexpensive but easy ways to get clean water. One way of doing this is by harvesting rainwater. Believe it or not, you can do this in the comfort of your home. Here’s how.

What You’ll Need:

Hoses for connecting barrels and distributing rainwater
Rain barrel
Pea gravel
Shovel
Screen (used for the downspout)
Cement blocks
Taps

Procedure:

Your roof is the best source of rainwater. Think about the weather in your place and estimate how much rainwater drains from the roof and falls to the ground. This will help you decide where to put the downspouts and where you can put an underground cistern. If it always rain in your place, chances are hundreds of gallons pour from the roof.
The best location for your rainwater harvesting system would be near the downspout of your present gutter.
Buy one or several rain barrels. You can get this from garden supply stores, gutter installation companies or landscape gardeners.
Choose an adequate base area for the rain barrels, and start digging at least four inches deep. Fill this with pea gravel.
Get some cement blocks, and lay them down on top of your pea gravel, leveling them properly. If you want, you can build a wooden base structure, to hold the barrels. Remember, the higher the rain barrels are off the ground, the more water pressure you’ll get. You’ll need this pressure to distribute your stored rainwater.
To keep twigs and leaves from falling out of the harvested rainwater, put a screen at the top of the downspout or the rain barrel itself. Position your downspout in such a way that the discharged water goes in the barrel directly.
If you plan on using more than one barrel, put in some hoses in between the barrels, just near the top, so they share the rainwater you collect.
Put in an overflow hose, at least three feet from your home’s foundation, on one of your barrels. This way, if the system becomes too full, the overflow wouldn’t end up at the base of the foundation. This might lead to local erosion.
Install taps near the bottom part of the rain barrels, so you can connect your water distribution system or hose.

A Few Tips:

To use rainwater for gardening: Connect a watering system made from plastic tubes or a soaker hose to the rain barrel outlets. Run it to your garden. When it’s time to water your blooms, just turn the taps on, and the water will be forced through the tubes by gravity.
To ensure that the rainwater that flows down is as clean possible, clean or replace the screen periodically.
The holes in the water distribution system need to be cleaned too, especially since they’re always on the ground.

We cannot say how long we’ll have clean and fresh water, so it’s a good idea to find clever ways to replenish yours at home. With a good rain harvesting system, you’ll always have adequate water supply.