Environmental benefits of rainwater harvesting

Do you have to get up at 5 a.m. to fetch water before going out to work? Did you know that the city of Cape Town, South Africa, is nearing a state of no water and that many other cities are at risk of bottoming out? While you may be taking a shower right now, it takes a pregnant woman in a remote village in Rajasthan five hours to fetch a jug of water from a nearby river that discharges the city's stench and sewage. Such are the differences in our realities, yet, ironically, we are all headed for the same doom. No one is immune to the wrath of nature. Water is our life source and we must find sources to protect, treat and recycle it. Rainwater harvesting is a successful and cost effective method of collecting and storing rainwater, natural reservoirs and surface water infiltration into underground aquifers to avoid their runoff. Let us discuss the environmental benefits of rainwater collecting in more detail in the following sections.

 

 

Benefits of rainwater harvesting

Runoff reduction.

With rainwater harvesting, we are able to stop rainwater from causing damage if left unchecked. It reduces the runoff caused by rainwater. If left unchecked, the peak flow and velocity of storms in local water bodies such as ponds, lakes, rivers, creeks and streams will be at risk of streambank erosion. Rainwater harvesting not only avoids this consequence, but also makes the best use of the abundant water resources after strategic harvesting.

 

Chemical-free and clean.

Pumped groundwater is hard and contaminated by the infiltration of chemicals and other harmful elements. Pumped water is also chemically treated and not exactly conducive to irrigation of plants and gardens. Rainwater collected and stored under sanitary conditions is very useful for irrigation because it is free of chemicals such as fluoride and chloramines (chlorine).

 

Charity begins at home.

Rainwater harvesting is a practice that relies heavily on individual participation. A significant shift at the community level is the contribution of each family, not the other way around. Your garden or patio is the primary base for constructing water catchment areas in your garden using tiles, sheet metal, plastic barrels or dug pits. The water collected can be used to irrigate plants, provide for livestock, water gardens and plants, bathe pets, etc. If it is equal to the amount of water used for all of these things, we will see the important role that rainwater harvesting plays.