Why should we harvest rainwater?

Rainwater Harvesting is the practice of collecting rainwater from a roof and storing it in a tank for subsequent non-potable use, such as toilets, laundry, irrigation, or pool filling.

Humans have harvested rainwater for thousands of years, until the advent of central water supply largely did away with the need for it in urban areas.

Today, however, many central water systems are under threat due to rapid population growth, urbanisation, and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change. The most recent example of this was “Day Zero” in 2018 when Cape Town almost ran out of water.

People have started to question why we waste huge amounts of resources to treat and pump drinking quality water to our homes and businesses, simply to flush it down the toilet, or water our gardens with it. Why don’t we rather use the rainwater that falls on our roofs for this?

Across the globe, many countries have started to embrace Rainwater Harvesting as a viable supplementary water source. In Australia, 1.7 million households have a rainwater tank. Germany is installing 60 thousand new rainwater tanks a year. The UK, Canada, USA, and many more countries have thriving rainwater harvesting industries.

In South Africa, the Departments of Water and Environment Affairs have begun to formulate a national rainwater harvesting strategy as a part of our commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement. This will hopefully bring some regulation and incentives to accelerate the adoption of Rainwater Harvesting.

Perhaps it is time that we all start thinking about how we can do our part to save water and help solve the water crisis.