MAKING IT RAIN

I live in an area where water harvesting has become a necessity and I’m forever experimenting with the various different mechanics of the harvesting and storage of the water. During this experimentation, several ways to keep mosquitoes, leaves and other debris from being washed into the downpipe and down to the tank have been tried.

I have tried the commercially available one as well as the obvious one of simply cementing a piece of nylon gauze over the entrance of the downpipe. And after years of experimenting, I think I have now come up with the cheapest and most ingenious way of ensuring that no debris gets washed into my storage tank.

Cut a plastic bottle of the appropriate size ( one that fits snugly on the inside of the downpipe) in half. Stick the funnel side down the downpipe, taking care to ensure it doesn’t fit too loosely, or it will just fall right in! Fill it with a few pebbles large enough not to drop through the open funnel end.

Then fill it up further with finer gravel or sand ( the size of the sand determines how fine you want the water filtered). You can also experiment with how much of the bottle sticks out into the gutter. If it’s flush with the bottom of the gutter, tie a piece of rope or wire to the top of the bottle so that you can pull it out once month or so to check whether it needs cleaning. You can also drill 1 mm holes in the bottle so that the water can run into the bottle from the sides.

Happy harvesting!

PC JONES PS: See attached drawing