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Unpredictable weather patterns have meant that many countries are looking at the possibility of water shortages. That is why rain water harvesting has become an alternative for families and communities to free themselves from dependence on water received from municipal and other civic authorities. Harvesting of water from the rain has been practiced by mankind for centuries and a number of previous civilizations used this to manage water supplies for their towns. Even in the present day, it is the rainwater that is harvested from large catchments and stored in large bodies of water that serve as reservoirs for the water supply to towns and cities. What has been largely neglected in the present day is the smaller home catchments that each living unit represents; they are completely capable of taking advantage of harvesting the rain from the limited areas that they expose to the elements. The basic principle behind this harvesting is fairly simple. It involves collecting rainwater falling on roof or other flat surfaces and placing this run off liquid in storage containers. This collected liquid can then be utilized by the people staying in the homes for their requirements. Rainwater is a very pure form of water and rarely contains any contamination. It may be necessary to avoid collecting the first rain in any area, as this can contain pollution from the atmosphere and may be slightly acidic if the rain is accompanied by lightning. Certain very crude harvesting techniques practiced in Indonesian islands involves simple bamboo pipes that collect rainwater falling on the thatched roof houses and lead the water into storage tanks. Such crude techniques have still ensured that these island communities have been able to manage their water requirements completely independently, and made them water rich. It is also possible to use these collection techniques to collect the rain and lead it to aquifers or ground basins or ponds that help to raise the ground water level in wells. This allows the harvested water to filter through into water bearing layers in the ground. This water can then be reused by extracting it from the wells whose water catchments have been replenished. It is unfortunate that many large cities that have large built up areas allow such water to go into drainage systems and out to rivers and the sea, where it is lost for any further use. Many cities have realized this defect, and some of them have placed restrictions on use of the water they supply and limited it only to personal purposes. All other requirements like gardening, cleaning of areas and vehicles have to be from rainwater harvested and stored for this purpose. When you consider that there are cities like Mumbai that have an annual rainfall that exceeds 2000 mm, this enormous amount of rain falling over the large urban area is completely capable of meeting all the water requirements of its large 20 million citizens. This will however need far more attention to proper infrastructure to be in place to take advantage of this God-given bounty. Rainwater harvesting in Edmonton can help to collect the run-off from a structure or other impervious surface in order to store it for later use. It is a viable alternative for supplying our households and businesses with water. Refer this link for additional details.
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