Small Rainwater Catch, Does It Work?

Last Friday, my son began to ask me about our water preparedness plan. I was honest; it’s not great.

I told him we had eight 55-gallon drums that had clean water we could drink, and six IBC totes collecting rooftop rainwater that would certainly need filtered and then boiled before I would feel comfortable consuming it.

Beyond that, we have a stagnant pond that I would be reluctant to use, so we would have to collect more rainwater or seek a groundwater source elsewhere.

That sparked the question: how hard is it to collect rainwater if we had to? I said we could string up tarps and funnel it into a barrel or bucket, like this:

We gave it a try with a 6’x8′ tarp:

The tarp is a little wonky because of the way the upper deck doesn’t quite meet up with the fence we tied the tarp to, but it was close enough that I didn’t feel the need to straighten everything out. In the future, I would stretch the tarp as much as possible and definitely use a larger tarp, at least 8’x10′ if not larger.

To help direct the water as possible, we tied a string around a piece of firewood to encourage the tarp to come to a point, right over the barrel bung hole. To help further, we added a funnel:

In the video I include above, he used a tote bin because of this very problem (water not quite making it into the hole all the time) but our setup, from what I could tell, was working as expected.

(Note: I like the idea recommended in the video above about using a broom handle or something similar to roll up the tarp so that it’s ready for deployment. That’s something we’ll have to reconsider in the future.)

Fortunately, it rained for a few hours over the weekend. It wasn’t heavy, but it was steady from what I recall.

So, how much water did we collect?

Not much. Maybe a few gallons at most. I was surprised, to be honest. I figured it would’ve done better.

Clearly, that’s not enough water to keep us hydrated unless we (1) put up dozens of these small catchments and (2) it rains constantly, which it doesn’t.

I feel like it would’ve been nearly as effective to simply cut the top off the barrel, which I wouldn’t want to do, all things considered. So, something must be wrong. But I’m going to have to stand out there and watch it during the next rain to have a better idea.


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Comments

3 responses to “Small Rainwater Catch, Does It Work?”

  1. Frank

    I like your adaption and ingenuity, but I think the ideal situation is to have barrels with a screened cover to keep out debris and either install a funnel for a free standing barrel (50 gallon drum or trash can, etc.) or divert water from gutters. This way you guarantee you’ll collect water without having to do anything.

    If we need to be more covert the containers can be hidden behind a little wall or fence and with any really large funnels, covers or screened boxes removed or hidden from view people will just assume they’re trash cans…. if they can even see them.

    I think more advanced filtering or purification can be done after collection unless one prefers to create a barrel with a filter, such as a Brita or Berkey filter on top so that water is purified and thus when your container or drum is filled up the water is ready for drinking. Of course then you have to replace the filter elements or wash them out.

    I just saw that first video by SouthernPrepper1 (Dave Kobler) yesterday. The tarp idea is easy and cheap and it’s easier to wash or rinse a tarp than a roof top. I would build a PVC frame and roll the tarp around a section of PVC that is attached to the end for quick deployment. The middle can be made into a funnel or have a length of gutter pipe or a PVC pipe cut in half to catch the water. The main advantage is the size of the tarp increases how much water can be collected.

    We have chain link and cattle fencing around my property and it’s not really high enough or sturdy enough and far from the house. And people might take notice of our water harvesting setups.

    1. Good idea, Frank, about hiding rain barrels. Haven’t much thought about the OPSEC side of this, but it may be invaluable!

  2. Jerry Price

    Damian, I came up with the same idea last week rather than cutting my downspouts (since we may be moving soon). I haven’t had opportunity to try it yet but I’m encouraged by your experiment. I like the idea of a roll up for it in off times. I had not thought of that. By the way, thanks for the book.

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