Rain Water Harvesting is an ancient activity that pre-dates recorded history. As far back as records go man has found ways to store water that fell from the sky for use in the future. It is highly likely this was an important concern of the earliest cavern dwellers.

The ways that the harvesting was done generally concerned capturing the water and storing it in some kind of fixed or portable container.

Some of these boxes included :

• Cisterns
• Water Barrels
• Lakes

Today it is popular to utilise a rain water barrel to gather rainwater from the roof of the house by way of a hurricane gutter system. There are some restrictions to this system due to the fact that a roof is literally capable of yielding much more water than a conventional Barrel can hold.

For the above reason other receptacles eg the RainXchange or Rainwater Hedge HOG have come into use because these have a much greater holding capacity than a 55 gallon barrel.

The RainXchange was developed by a landscaper who initially built decorative fountains for his clients that had a big water storage area under them. He worked out a technique to produce these in order that they may be acquired and sent to more distant locations and be installed by others.

These kits Basically involve plastic frames resembling milk crates that can be wrapped in plastic to make any size “tank” you wish by digging the hole and placing and wrapping the crates. The ornamental fountain or waterfall is placed above this and the stored water is pumped to “power” the item.

The First Rainwater Pillow looks like a giant water bed that’s put under the house where it collects anywhere from 800 gallons to 200,000 gallons of water from the hurricane gutter system.

The Rainwater HOG is like a giant “Gumby” and these “building blocks” can be interlinked to make as huge a storage area as you want that will fit along the side of the house under the eves, giving the system a neat classy look. There’s even an adaptation of this system called a Hedge Hog where these units are decorated as hedge dividers giving the system an ornamental look.

Modern Rainwater Harvesting is much like that of ancient Man in theory but we just have fancier collection receptacles and dirtier rain.

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