Rainwater Harvesting – Are we facing increasing future water shortages?

The short answer… If human daily living habits around the world don’t change for the better, absolutely.

Now for the longer one… When most of us think of collecting rainwater, we might think of weathered oak barrels with rusty metal bands sitting at the corner of a an old barn – right next to the hitchin’ post. While it’s true that the practice of conserving rainwater dates back to forever ago, it’s not a practice we’ve seen much of in the past few decades. Over time, our country’s population has come to take clean water for granted. However, this is proving to be a dangerous stance.
The world’s overall demand for water has increased sixfold from 1900 to 1995, which is over twice the rate of population growth during that same timeframe. If this trend of water consumption continues, the United Nations estimates that in less than 25 years from now, over 5 billion people will find itdifficult or impossible to meet basic water needs. This is a pretty strong statement.
To give you a proper perspective of where we are today… While 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, 97.5% of it is salt water and only 2.5% is fresh water. Most of this fresh water is trapped in polar icecaps and most of the remaining is found in underground aquifers or as soil moisture. According to the World Health Organization, only .007% of all the water on Earth, is readily available for human consumption. Today, 1.5 billion people in the world are without access to safe drinking water and half of the world’s population lacks adequate water purification systems.
Now for where we’re apparently headed… In 1960, our world population was approximately 3 billion people. It took thousands of years for our species to grow to that number. Today, only 49 years later, our world’s population has grown to just under 7 billion. Our population has more than doubled in less than 50 years! When you think of the current rate of population growth and the increased rate of global warming, the ramifications are terrifying at best. In 1998, 31 countries faced chronic freshwater shortages. By the year 2025, 48 countries are expected to face shortages, affecting nearly 3 billion people – 35% of the world’s projected population (the entire world’s human population back in 1960).
Today, rainwater harvesting is a catch-all technical term used to indicate collecting and storing rainwater from rooftops, land surface or rock catchments using all types and sizes of containers. These containers can range from buckets & barrels which hold only a few gallons to large tanks that have several hundred or thousand gallon capacities. These tanks can be either in-ground or on top.
In an effort to raise awareness and participate in laying the foundation for water independence, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation being built in Seattle, Washington includes an underground reservoir capable of holding a million gallons of rainwater. The water will be used for landscaping, flush toilets and the other water needs of the building.
Imagine the pressure that will take off of the city’s water supply. A million gallons would fill 20,000 bath tubs. Or if you want a more sporting comparison, it would fill a tank the size of football field with 10 feet of water.
What can we do about it? Stored water can substitute for piped, treated drinking water (potable water) for many uses where a high level of purity is not required. Such applications are landscape / garden, washing cars, flushing toilets or piping it directly to a washing machine. In fact, plants themselves do much better with the naturally soft, non-chlorinated rainwater.