A short, clear guide to building your own rainwater storage tank. With insight and humour, this lovely book covers all aspects of the process, from design to construction to maintenance. Each stage is set out with straightforward steps, accompanied by beautiful, simple illustrations for clarity.
Felicity Lee and Daniel Coleman write from their own experience with off-mains living in France. They give examples from their own construction process and how they selected the tank sizes that they use. As they highlight, their rainwater storage journey has awakened a greater appreciation for the rain and reverence for the water they drink and use, before returning it to the landscape to irrigate swales on their land.
This was a subject that I knew almost nothing about when I started reading and now I have a sense of curiosity and confidence to begin replacing my old sun-weathered IBC storage tank set-up. The durability of these rebar, chickenwire and cement plastered tanks is very appealing by comparison. Like any new subject, there are some areas where I still have questions. I’d have been interested to know how much cement and aggregate
“A practical and accessible guide for people new to rainwater harvesting, helpfully illustrated and a pleasure to read. While it is directed more to an audience within the global north, and cement is not always an ideal medium for areas with limited water, it is certainly a valuable ‘how to do it’ guide for those living in areas where water is plentiful at particular times of year.”
Re-alliance www.re-alliance.org are needed and to have learned a little more about the piping set-up into and out of the tanks. However for the main construction process the book is both thorough and insightful.
The authors are offering a sense of resilience through their words. The permaculture principle ‘each important function should be supported by many elements’ clearly includes diversifying our water sources to ensure that this basic need is met. In my own life I can see that it would serve me well to overhaul my rainwater storage system to maintain the diversity of my water sources rather than finding myself with a leaky plastic tank system and then relying solely on the council mains supply and the electricity that keeps it flowing.
This practical book offers a helping hand to anyone wanting to store rainwater for use in the home or garden. Ferrocement Water Tanks is as much a delight to read as it is instructive. Short, sweet and to the point.
Féidhlim Harty is the author of Towards Zero Waste, Septic Tank Options and Alternatives and Permaculture Guide to Reed Beds, and is an environmental consultant at FH Wetland Systems.