Advantages Of Rainwater Harvesting In Your Home

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12 OCTOBER, 2022

As rightly put by Benjamin Franklin, ‘When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.’ Water is essential to all living activities for humans, animals, and plants. It is impossible to imagine a world without water. However, our precious water resources are fast depleting. The rising climate crisis has heightened the contamination and depletion of our water resources.

Finding ways to deal with the mounting water scarcity has become crucial. A smart and the most efficient way to do this is rainwater harvesting. The advantages of water harvesting are numerous. Rainwater harvesting is a sustainable water management system that homeowners can bring into practice at various levels, from an easy-to-install rain barrel at a house to more complicated rainwater harvesting systems in apartments and buildings.

What is Rainwater Harvesting?

Rainwater harvesting can be understood as the process of collecting, storing, and filtering water that would otherwise run-off from rooftops, roads, grounds, etc., and get drained away. This water is collected in containers installed on rooftops and sides of buildings under specially designed gutters to gather the rainwater. You can use this purified rainwater in your home, and your dependence on the municipal water supply is reduced considerably.

The overall water consumption and wastage reduce significantly as a community as a whole when more people opt for rainwater harvesting. Rainwater harvesting is a simple-to-install technique used in urban and rural areas. The system is easy to build and requires minimum regular maintenance. People can take home improvement loans and install a rainwater harvesting system in their homes.

5 Benefits of Rainwater Harvesting

The advantages of water harvesting are endless. The water collected and stored through rainwater harvesting is fit for multiple purposes. You can use this water for drinking & cooking, in toilets, for agriculture, to water plants in gardens & laws, to fill pools and waterparks, for pets, to do laundry, for fire protection, and for composting. The advantages of rainwater harvesting are many-fold. Here are the top advantages of rainwater harvesting to help you understand why you should consider it for your home or office premises.

1. Easy installation and maintenance: Collecting and using rainwater is not only individually beneficial but is also a significant contributor to community wellness. Water is an energy resource, and collecting and repurposing the water nature gives us is a great way to use this energy source. Moreover, the technology used to harvest rainwater is simple to install and use. What’s more, the expense of installing and maintaining a rainwater harvesting system is much less than installing a water purifying and pumping system. Maintaining a rainwater harvesting system does not consume much time and effort. You can use the collected wanted at multiple places even without purifying it.

2. Rainwater harvesting is an independent source of water: The municipal water supply in many areas is unreliable these days. Rainwater harvesting offers an independent source of water cheaper than supply water. You do not need to rely solely on the government supply of water and can use the preserved water as an alternative means of water supply. Rainwater harvesting offers you an uninterrupted water supply at very little cost. This water conservation technique contributes to increasing the quantity of potable water available. The water collected from rainwater harvesting has zero hardness, and your appliances do not get scale build-up when you use rainwater for them. You can store it for long durations and depend on this water source when the water supply is low. Rainwater is a life-saving tool to deal with droughts and water shortages.

3. Rainwater harvesting helps reduce water bills: Utility bills like electricity and water can run into thousands of rupees monthly for housing apartments and industrial buildings. Installing rainwater harvesting systems can help large-scale buildings significantly reduce their utility bills. It becomes easy to meet the large-scale water requirements of factories and housing societies through rainwater harvesting without depleting the local water resources. The rainwater harvesting technique reduces soil erosion and allows the soil to thrive again and become rich for cultivation. On an individual level, rainwater harvesting can help reduce the utility bill for your house or office space. Over time, these small savings on your water and electricity bills can go a long way in saving money for you.

4. Rainwater harvesting is suitable for irrigation: You require only limited infrastructure to harvest rainwater. In maximum cases, the rooftops of buildings are enough to gather rainwater. It impacts the environment positively as you do not require fuel-based equipment to collect rainwater, preventing environmental pollution and the wastage of fuel. Groundwater contains many types of chemicals which are not present in rainwater. It makes rainwater suitable for irrigation activities. You can water your plants and gardens using rainwater, as watering large lawns and parks require substantial water. Rainwater harvesting is successful in areas where forest fires are common when the temperatures rise, and the sun scorches.

5. Rainwater harvesting provides water for drinking and non-drinking purposes: The advantages of rainwater are multiple. One benefit of rainwater harvesting is using it for indoor and outdoor domestic purposes. If you harvest rainwater through the right techniques, it becomes safe for drinking. Rainwater is not contaminated with pollutants and salinity and is easier to purify for drinking. Apart from drinking, you can use rainwater for various other purposes like washing cars, cleaning utensils, bathing, doing laundry, gardening, farming, etc.

The Final Word

The advantages of rainwater have inspired numerous people worldwide to adopt the water conservation technique. Rainwater harvesting is helping people save money while saving nature. These days, rainwater is collected in areas with heavy rainfall and distributed among drought-prone areas where rainfall is scarce. People are opting for home improvement loans to install rainwater harvesting systems to contribute to the community and easily access usable water.