The benefits of using rainwater: in search of balance
Natural resources have always been a source of inspiration for our ancestors who lived finding alternatives to the lack of technology or developments to survive.
Currently there are indigenous populations that even continue to use ancestral systems of natural resource management for their day to day. The use of rainwater is one of the most versatile and ecological actions that the environment offers us and that little by little we forget to put into practice.
Water is the most important natural resource for any living being. It is the vital element that ensures the development of biological processes necessary for the proliferation of life on our planet. A valuable resource, necessary, but not always given the importance it deserves. It is a staple good that constitutes more than 80% of most living organisms and that plays a leading role in mechanisms such as photosynthesis, essential for the balance of the ecosystem.
Despite knowing all these details, human beings have for years lost the perspective of their true dependence on this vital element, becoming a mere consumer product.
Now we realize again that, without water, there is no life.
How much water do we need?
Although there are variations in water consumption depending on geographical locations, on average the human being consumes 1.5 liters of water per day. In addition, to cook we need between 6 and 8 liters and for other necessities (personal hygiene, washing machines, washing dishes, etc.) each person has been consuming more than 170 liters of water daily.
Rainwater: the gift from heaven
Our ancestors were already clear that rain was a gift and as such they used it for different uses: cleaning, sewage, etc. Collecting rainwater was an integrated process in the life of human beings throughout our planet, since with it solutions were sought on a day-to-day basis. Washing, watering and even personal hygiene were the destination of those drops that accumulated in more or less archaic tanks for the collection of that water. Cisterns from the Arab world are the forerunners of current rainwater storage systems. These, in turn, descend from the monumental cisterns that were built in the Roman Empire to deposit that rainwater, which would later be used in agriculture and other uses.
The ancient Mayans, for their part, had their chultunes, their own cisterns in which they kept both water and corn and were built as underground chambers.
Industrialization gradually began to cause adverse effects on the quality of rainwater, being detrimental to human consumption due to its content of polluting elements harmful to health.
Most of the planet’s waters have physical-chemical and bacteriological pollutants that prevent their direct intake. Surface and underground water sources that were reliable yesterday are now heavily polluted:
- Fertilizers used in agriculture,
- Over-exploitation of livestock,
- Irregular mining,
- Lack of purification of urban, industrial wastewater, etc.
- There are various means of purifying water, after which the water can be used for personal hygiene, but in many cases not for drinking and cooking.
The current purification systems mean that we can even treat that rainwater to consume it with all the guarantees.
Collecting rainwater: a wise decision.
The scarcity of water due to global warming is a reality, and that is why taking advantage of natural resources in a sustainable way is the guarantee for the future of our planet.
That is why collecting rainwater for domestic use is an interesting option, especially when we use it for irrigation. The stored rainwater does not contain chemicals or other elements that are harmful to plants. Similarly, its use in sewerage systems reduces the carbon footprint helping us to care for the environment.
Rainwater is practically distilled water, but without the minerals that are necessary for us. In addition, when we store it, it can become contaminated if, for example, the tank is not perfectly clean. To make rainwater drinkable, we must have adequate equipment that allows us to eliminate impurities and also provide that water with the necessary minerals so that it is totally suitable for our consumption.
That is why Rain of Life has developed equipment that performs the function of collecting rainwater, which is stored in a tank, keeping it in perfect condition until it is purified and consumed. In this way, both in homes or small businesses and in larger offices and schools, the RoL50 and RoL1.000 atmospheric water generators can be located with their solar kits that carry out the channeling and purification of the collected rainwater.
