Human beings have always gone to war over precious natural resources. The only thing that changes over the ages is what the resource is. As unbelievable as it sounds, scientists and economists predict that the battles of the future will be over fresh water. It is not too surprising, really, once you get an idea of the sheer quantities of pollutants that industrial activity is pumping into our rivers and lakes. There is still time, however, to remedy this, and one way to save water for reusing is rain water harvesting.

Rain water harvesting is the term given to the collecting and storing of rain water. Rain provides us with an abundant supply of fresh water, but if it is not collected, it falls to the ground and cannot be put to use entirely. This does not mean that it is all wasted. A lot of it replenishes underground reservoirs but there is no denying that a good part of it eventually runs into the sea.

The system of harvesting this water is through roof or ground catchment systems. Roof systems are ideal for individual houses and they channel the rain water into a storage device via pipes and drains. This water can be used for watering plants, flushing toilets, doing laundry or for livestock. Ground catchment systems work best for communities especially those located in areas that do not get much precipitation of any form.

Water collected in this manner is useful in many ways and not just because of shortages. Some areas may have abundant ground water that is very hard and therefore unsuitable for drinking or cooking. Even livestock may have an issue with hard water. Rain water is the ideal situation in this case. It is not unknown for holiday homes to be equipped with this system, particularly if they are located far away from the nearest town and piped water supply is not available. Increasingly, many urban planners are including this system into their plans in order to artificially replenish the groundwater table and to reduce flooding during rains.

The rain water thus collected has to be purified before consumption in most cases. If it is intended for human consumption, water from the first showers is to be discarded because the storage devices are bound to be dirty. Also there is a possibility of pollution and chemicals in the atmosphere that get washed down with the first showers.

There are some very easy ways to purify water collected through this method. One way is to add purifying chemicals.

Planners are of the idea that new constructions should have these harvesting systems inbuilt so as to preempt future problems arising due to water scarcity. This will result in a definite improvement in people’s lives in developing parts of the world. In developed countries, this will help bring down costs of water and do away with the need of expensive desalination or water softening plants. There is no doubt at all that this method of saving water is here to stay.

Author Bio: I am basically a graduate at the University of Hamburg and you can get awesome articles and valid information from the ones which I submit specially for you to take a look at. Check out Rain Images, Rain Graphics or Rain Pictures.

Category: Advice
Keywords: rain, rain water harvesting, fresh water, desalination, softening