Done correctly, literally thousands of gallons of water can be harvested from small amounts of desert rainfall
Deserts, by definition, get small amounts of precipitation. But even in desert areas, a great deal of that precious precipitation can be harvested and used, not only for humans, but also for wildlife and plants.
But how do you harvest rainfall?
Our ancestors used a system of gutters and cisterns to collect rainwater, and in many rural areas, that is still practiced. But there are some interesting new insights and methods for rainwater harvesting that are gaining world attention.
In fact, some small towns and rural areas are leading the way for rainwater harvesting.
Simply harvesting rainwater from roofs can save thousands of gallons of water to be used for irrigation and household purposes.
For instance, the high desert of Santa Fe, New Mexico, receives about 14 inches of rainfall (including melted snow) per year. That doesn’t seem to be a lot of water. But one inch of rainfall per square foot produces .6 gallons of water. One inch of rain falling on 2,000 square feet of roof produces 1,200 gallons of water. Multiply that by 14 inches and that comes to 16, 800 gallons per year.
The average four-person family in the United States and Canada uses approximately 260 gallons of water per day, for bathing, cooking and showering, toilets and other uses. Of course, this does not include lawn and plant irrigation.
But harvesting 16,800 gallons per year would provide the average family over two months of water.
With modern collection, storage and decontamination techniques, harvesting rainwater can be an economical and conservational alternative to aquifer and surface water drawdowns.
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