In Australia, one of our most precious resources is rainwater. In the last twenty years, we've experienced two 'official' droughts in Sydney. Technically, I think we might still be in one. Certainly, in spite of the periodic rain, other parts of the country are still in drought.
Did you know that if all the water on earth was represented by a single bucket, the volume of drinkable freshwater would amount to only a single drop? And we run that freshwater over our vegies and bodies and driveways to clean them, and let it run off our roofs and into the gutter to flow out to sea, mixing with the undrinkable water - much of which is stained with undrinkable and inseparable pollutants.
Did you know that the best place to hold water is not in a tank...but in the soil itself? How do you hold water in the soil? You add organic matter to it. You keep it from drying out. You slow down the movement of water through it so the soil has time to absorb it. There's some excellent work about this - an Australian, Peter Andrews, does what he calls 'natural sequence farming' and worked out how to store water in drought-ridden farm soils. You can find out a little more about it here: https://www.nsfarming.com/
This property is not yet waterwise. We collect water from the carport, but not from the gutters at present, although the plans are ready to go. This year will be the year.
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