Aussie Rain Tanks supplies the best designed and manufactured rain tanks for the family home, made from the safest materials and using the latest technology. However, rain tanks have been around for centuries. Archeologists in Crete have discovered rainwater collection systems dating back to 1,700BC!
It was the ancient Romans who mastered rainfall collection by building large reservoirs that have been discovered all around the empire. Although communal water began to be stored centrally, the more sophisticated houses of the time used pools in the artrium to collect rainwater from the roofs.
Probably the largest water tank in the world is the Yerebatan Sarayi, on the European side of Istanbul in Turkey. It was constructed under Caesar Justinian (A.D. 527-565) and measures 153 by 76 yards. It can store over 240,000 ft³ of water.
Rain tanks were common in dry areas where people wanted to build homes without springs or wells in the vicinity. The technique was often used when Christian monks built their monasteries. Many of these examples still exist in the former Spanish Empire and monasteries in Mexico.
The history of rainwater harvesting in Asia can be traced back to over 1,000 years ago from the large-scale rice terraces and the small-scale collection of rainwater from roofs and simple brush dam constructions in the rural areas of South and South-east Asia. Rainwater collection from the eaves of roofs or via simple gutters into traditional jars and pots has been traced back almost 2 000 years in Thailand.
Rainwater harvesting has long been used in the drier regions of China. Recently, between 1970 and 1974 about 40 000 well storage tanks, in a variety of different forms, were constructed using a technology which stores rainwater and stormwater runoff in ponds of various sizes. A thin layer of red clay is generally laid on the bottom of the ponds to minimize seepage losses. Trees, planted at the edges of the ponds, help to minimize evaporative losses from the ponds.
Farmers in the US mid-west and Australia have relied on rain tanks to store water pumped from aquifers and to collect rainfall from sheds and homes.
The progress of urbanization lead to the centralization of water collection and supply. This lead to clean, safe and cheap water. However, modern water technology has its disadvantages too:
One fifth (20%) of all California’s energy consumption is used to transport and treat water;
The centralization of supply increases the risk of total cut-off in cases of natural disaster (earthquakes etc.), destruction through acts of war (bombing etc.), and source pollution (environmental pollution through chemicals).
Most municipal water is heavily filtered and treated with chemicals
Today’s rain tanks come in a range of sizes, shapes and colors to best suit our modern suburban life.
Whether your property can collect and store thousands of gallons or only a narrow walkway suitable for a few hundred gallons, you will be helping the environment deal with urban run-off and have fresh rainwater in the drier months.