Rain Water Harvesting

The consumption of water has been increasing in the last few decades. Most of the demand is caused by agricultural activities (BBC Features). Water needed for industrial purposes also drives up the demand. The world can learn about ways of conserving water from the countries that have initiated the measures and have become successful at it. Australia is considered as the most successful so far. Recycling, desalination, and harvesting rainwater are some of the solutions that can be applied to handle water shortages and create

project of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), located at www.waterlawandstandards.org. This is a searchable database of specific water laws by individual country or by region, with the ability to tailor search results to varying degrees of detail, including direct quotations from parliamentary and constitutional frameworks.

Possible solution example: Using a rain garden can dramatically impact the environment. During heavy downpours, our outdated sewer system cannot handle the runoff due to impermeable surfaces in the community. Dave Morris, who is a liaison to the mayor states, “Every homeowner should consider a rain garden to decrease the amount of pollutants running into the watershed” (305). Rain gardens provide a temporary place to hold rainwater, allowing it to be absorbed over time and filtering out contaminants that would otherwise end up in waterways.

As for the rest of the country no state specifically prohibits the collection of water runoff from your roof, but the wording is again vague in some cases, and there are certain regulations in place. You can collect in barrels in most instances for your own use, and in some states people are encouraged to do so.

The most highlighted activity at the Southbank is rainwater system. Rain Bank stormwater harvesting project in South Bank Parkland, Brisbane is an important demonstration project for distributed alternative water supplies in Australia, providing an alternative solution for future issues and its highlight the profit and importance of having such solution. It has reduced the usage of main water supply, improves drought security and contributes to a cleaner, healthier waterways (Hamlyn,

As we all understand, the Earth has many landmarks and it is these physical features that create an abundant and organized system within which we thrive. One of the most abundant natural resources on the planet is water and the importance of this element is as crucial as any other. For the fortunate few who get to utilize it, this amazing reserve provides us with our necessity for daily consumption as well as our ability to grow just about anything we please. Common irrigation practices are essential for gathering water into a contained area to grow crops that would not typically survive in areas without heavy rainfall. As a matter of fact, “irrigation is an ancient practice that originated along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq” and is now the result of an estimated 40 percent of all crops grown around the world (Water Encyclopedia). This tactic has provided many different cultures with numerous varieties of crops as well as growth in crop yield which in turn dramatically advances human civilization. As we develop into a more progressive society, the tools and systems used to grow our crops also become more intelligent as well as sustainable

Water, like food, is a necessity for human life that is used for many purposes such as agricultural, industrial, and domestic systems. While water is a common element around the world not all of it is clean and able to be consumed or used by humans. With only a percentage of the world’s water being clean and the use of water increasing, the availability of water around the world has become a common issue in the developing and even the developed world. This may be a smaller problem in areas close to clean water sources compared to areas far from a clean water source but, the availability of water is not strictly based on location, it also depends on the specific political and social needs and issues of the area as well. These all become issues that must be accounted for when deciphering whether water is a basic human right or a commodity and what action must be taken to aid the developing water systems in community’s that lack them.

People and businesses in a variety of situations and sectors are helping out with the cause. City residents are cutting a surprising amount of water. People are taking shorter showers, switching out inefficient appliances, not washing their cars, and letting their lawns go dry. Water agencies are actually offering rebates for people that switch out their innefieciant shower heads and toilets. People are also saving water through, “xeriscaping, which means “dry landscaping,” homeowners replace thirsty grass with drought-tolerant native plants like wildflowers and succulents” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). The Santa Clara Valley Water District is even paying residents $1 per square foot to xeriscape their properties. Another method for conserving water is water recycling. It’s a method to cleanup and reuse wastewater. In Orange county there’s a Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS) that cleans 70 million gallons of wastewater per day. More plants like this are planned to open up in the next couple of years. California restaurants aren’t even allowed to serve water unless the customer specifically asks for it. The biggest water saving technique is drip irrigation. Drip irrigation, “allows water to seep slowly into the roots of plants through a network of tubes and valves at the base of a plant” (Bryan Walsh, 2014). While this technique is significantly more efficient than sprinklers and flood irrigation, it’s still not as widespread because it costs a lot to install the necessary equipment. About 40 percent of farms still use flood irrigation. Californians are finding many different ways to save every drop they can, but a whole lot more can still be done to save the maximum amount of

You can collect rainwater on your own property as long as you do not dam up waterways that feed water reservoirs designated for public use. Water from your own roof can be collected till your heart's content. You cannot collect water deemed public water without the proper permits.

Storm water in south Australia is used for non-drinking purposes like irrigation so that valuable clean drinking water can be used for drinking only.

(Hasan and Özay 2002, 73-74). As Albiac (2008) reports, development of pipe network distribution and drip irrigation methods in other countries led the farmers to have remarkable irrigation efficiency in drought (143). Such technologies have already been used in China, but they are not widely spread in China’s agriculture. One investigation in China on rice paddy irrigation systems development was performed and it revealed that using the fry-foot paddy irrigation (when no water flooded the field) instead of flooding irrigation (when the rice field is completely flooded) significantly (40-60%) reduces water consumption (Xiaoping, Qiangsheng and Bin 2004, 351). Furthermore, drip irrigation method was applied in arid Northern China and it raised the water usage efficiency (Du et al 2007). However, introduction of new irrigation technologies faced some difficulties in China. As Hodstedt (2010) noticed in his article, the water saved by these technologies such as drip irrigation systems was simply spent on more food production and, therefore, did not reduce the water shortage. Also, as he reported, this caused two other environmental problems. Firstly, the water, which was the supply for underground water and aquifers as it was lost by deep percolation and leakage, became unavailable after the water-saving technologies were introduced and this strengthened the aquifers depleting along with its overpumping. Secondly, after

In less than a year, California residents will not have enough water to drink, and their beautiful state will turn into a desert. This problem is not limited to California, the entire world is facing clean water shortage problems. If the human community doesn’t pay attention to this problem, in a few decades the number of people who die due to lack of water or hunger that is caused by water shortage will be over millions a year. Polluting the remaining sources of clean water is also another problem. Some factories and farms are releasing their chemical waste into the close by water sources which causes contamination of the water. Harvesting new sources of water is required in order to increase the remaining sources of clean water, and also preventing water contamination is necessary because the process of removing waste from the water is very expensive. In order to solve the

A rain garden is a depressed area of land that collects and filters water runoff (EPA). The runoff collected in a rain garden comes from building roofs, streets, sidewalks, and other areas of the landscape that are paved over (Rain Garden Alliance) (EPA). Water collects in the shallow depression, soaks into the ground and is filtered through the vegetation, it is then returned to the water cycle (EPA). Rain gardens are a sustainable way to manage and relieve storm water systems during a rain event (Rain Garden

Refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation.

Undoubtedly, the most important resource people work to provide for an off-grid lifestyle is water. One method of obtaining water is through a water catchment system. This task can be accomplish simply through using barrels to amass rainwater or snow that is “fed by the downspout of . . . rain gutters or eaves of [a] building” or a house” (Black 128). Another method of obtaining water is