water, another free resource!

by Joyce Lee
(S UT)

Our Water Tank

What Does One Do In The Desert On A Piece Of Property With No Power Or Water, And Lacking Financial Resources To Drill A Well? (Drilling A Well Would Be A Big Gamble Anyway Because The Water Table Has Dropped Badly Over The Past Few Years And Others In The Area With Wells Have Gone Dry.

This Is What We Do! We Take Advantage Of Another Free Gift Commonly Called "Storms" To Harvest Water Into A Large Tank. I Have Seen Some Very Nice Impressive Water Catchment Systems But Ours Is A Very Simple Affair Consisting Of A Large Tarp In A Shallow Depression A Very Short Distance From Our House. We Have A Pvc Pipe That Runs Downhill From The Tarp And Into A 225 Gal. Barrel.

This Is Water We Use For Flushing Toilet, Doing Laundry, Washing Dishes, Watering A Small Garden, And Water For The Chickens.

I Know We Could Filter It To Drink But That's Yet Another Project Needing Funds So That Will Happen Eventually.In The Meantime, We Haul In Drinking Water.

If Something Happened That Prevented Us From Hauling Water To Drink, We Have A WAPI (Water Pasteurization Unit) To Make Our Harvested, Unfiltered Water Safe. I Have Practiced With It And Feel Confident It Would Work.

What Do Any Of The Rest Of You Do To Assure That You Have A Drinkable Water Supply?