Video credits: Eva Trubac via YouTube.com
Hi there! I am back again with another random topic which I had just thought about writing today because it started raining super hard just a few minutes ago. In fact, it is still raining right now but not that hard compared to what occurred earlier.
While I was watching the rain drops from the sky, I began thinking what could we do so we can make use of these rain water which I bet will just come and go, it will evaporate in time and then the cycle goes on.
But what if these raindrops will be placed on containers and would somehow be reused? I had these thoughts all throughout the raining moments. I then started writing this blog so we can both learn how to save rain water and make use of it. List me share to you what I have realized as well as what other people thought about rain. Read on.
Image credits: Stone36 via www.mnn.com
⛆ RAIN WATER ⛆
There's a huge decrease of water supply, this is going down year by year and so the slogan which states conserve water has been launched by different sectors of the government and even the non government branches. Water is essential for the earth to live.
Rain is always fascinating to me. I don't know about you but it is like a miracle how nature works. There's condensation, evaporation and etc that occurs without us knowing but we are lucky enough to see its beauty.
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⛆ What is rain water by the way? ⛆
According to wikipedia.org:
Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then becomes heavy enough to fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation.
With this definition, it is evident that rain is indeed essential, super important for life on earth to continue. Forests and unoccupied areas are beneficiaries to these as well as the crops being planted by farmers.
Image credits: joakimbkk via www.istockphoto.com
⛆ HOW TO STORE RAIN WATER? ⛆
Rain water is one of the free resources that we can make use of specially in personal homes. Rain comes and go so we better make use of it when it visits us. Sometimes storms bring rain which is very unfortunate but we should always look at the positive side of each coin.
Image credits: www.shutterstock.com
With the help of nature, it is possible to store rain water and make use of it. How do we conserve this source? It is possible with the use of one's roof plus barrels.
With just the use of your roofs and a barrel, a household can possible store rain water. Roofs should have gutter systems installed so rain coming from the roof would get caught up in a specific area and will flow down into the barrel placed below the gutter exit.
Image credits: www.the-diy-life.com
A proper rain gutter design will allow the water to be discharged from the roof into either the ground or for rain conservation, a container such as a barrel.
Aside from that using rain catchers are also very popular among other households in another country. This is easy with the use of some filtering materials and screens. It is kept open so it can just catch the rain water as it drops from the skies. See below:
This one is referred as a rain catcher. Image credits: www.pinterest.com
⛆ HOW TO REUSE RAINWATER? ⛆
Seeing the rain from above falling into the ground, I felt like the chance of being able to collect the water has been missed. In our house in Bohol, whenever it rains, my father and I would always get the container installed in the right position so that the rain is collected. These will be used in certain cases within the house specifically because we always have issue with the water supply in our area.
I am fascinated with how fast we get the container filled up when the rain is strong enough. Just a few minutes and it will be filled up to its brim. Then we will have to replace it again with another container. This is also the reason why we have a lot of containers at home.
So the main concern after this is what to do with the collected rain water? Will it be left at the containers just for the sake of collection? Of course no, there are lots of reasons why we collected it and here are the uses:
1. Toilet Flushing.
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While there are others who have installed this filtration process to make the rain water usable for drinking, our home is not designed for that yet. So we have made use of the rain water for external only such as this one - toilet flushing.
I totally believe that flushing the toilet with the rain water is the best way to conserve water. This doesn't cost anything and flushing doesn't really require clean water. So even if there are some pollutants and other items brought by the gutter from the roof, it will be okay.
This is our top 1.
2. Watering Plants and trees.
Image credits: www.flowerpower.com.au
My mother loves plants and orchids. I recall when I was still small, she had assigned watering the plants to me, oh and the cleaning too! That was for me an enjoyable task except the cleaning though. I have time to think while watering the plants. We got a huge garden before and a lot of orchids so I have to water every single one of them and should also water the bermuda grass.
Today, we have a smaller garden and smaller number of orchids after moving to a new place. But that doesn't stop my mother from getting her plants alive. With the collected rain, we won't be using the main water supply to get the plants hydrated. In fact, rain water is the best water for plants because of its fresh components.
It would only require more effort using the rain water but the savings from water bill surely is worth the effort.
3. Washing cars and motorcycle.
Image credits: www.phnompenhpost.com
Here's another reason why we should make use of the rain water. Washing cars and other vehicles takes a huge amount of water. With using rain water, it can definitely make a significant savings on the water bill.
In our house, we have one four wheels multicab, a Toyota car and two motorcycles. Getting them cleaned up with the use of rain water is a saver.
4. Cooking and Drinking.
Image credits: nafarma.com
While we don't do this at home, there are certain households who are using the rain water for drinking and cooking. This process requires utmost filtering process from the collection down to the usage.
There are different technologies nowadays that has implemented this filtering method and so it is possible to drink the rain water. In fact, rain water is pure and it doesn’t contain any chlorine or other chemicals compared to the ones provided to the community.
There's just an extra mile effort of boiling and distilling the rain water.
Video credits: Trenton Kaminski via YouTube.com
Now there are still a lot of other ways to make use of the rain water, for now, that's the list I have where in we are also able to do except for the drinking though. Hopefully, the next time that it rains in your area, you have the container ready to catch those rain fall and make use of it. It will change the way you look at the rain. Instead of getting grumpy because of it, it will let you see its purpose and help for the earth and mankind.
xoxo,
Jean
