'It's crazy to be paying for water to be drained off, processed by the utility company and returned to you when the original water is fine to use for flushing your toilet and in your garden,' Bob Imrie tells me.
Instead, he channels the rain that lands on the roof of his three-bedroom home through a filter and into a tank sunk under his lawn. It is then pumped to his toilet, washing machine and an outside tap, enabling him to slash his water bill by at least 40 per cent and do his bit for the environment.
It also provides him with an emergency supply in the event of a hosepipe ban.
The Freerain (www.freerain.co.uk) system was already in place when Mr Imrie moved into his home in 2001, but typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 to retro fit in an existing property.
And with climate change experts warning that water shortages will become increasingly common, installing a system is likely to make a property far more attractive to potential buyers. In fact, it was the reason that Mr Imrie bought the house.
'I had driven past it before and not paid much attention. I had assumed the house, which is on an estate, was a standard new build. But then I read about it in a local newspaper and discovered that the properties had been built to a very high standard and designed to reduce their environmental impact.
"I suppose the property must have been more expensive as a result, but it didn't seem to be out of line with what I would have paid elsewhere.'
As a result of the rainwater harvesting system, and other eco technologies in his Nottinghamshire home, Mr Imrie's monthly water bill is just £7.
But despite the pressing need for water conservation, the industry is in its infancy in the UK, with only around 5,000 domestic properties benefiting from the technology. This is due, in part, to the fact that just 20 per cent of homes are metered and therefore most householders lack a financial incentive to cut water usage.
But Mr Imrie also believes that the Government is failing to promote the technology. 'It's mad that the Government hasn't made rainwater harvesting the standard for new builds,' he says.
It has also failed to offer grants to homeowners wishing to install the technology, unlike in Germany, where a mixture of carrot and stick has led to more than half a million rainwater systems being installed in homes and workplaces.
However, there is an additional financial advantage from installing the system that few people are aware of. 'About 5pc of your water rates cover drainage from your house,' Mr Imrie says.
'In my case, a pipe comes from downpipes off the gutter, goes into the tank and exits to the nearby dike, so if it's over full it flows into the dike That means I can get a reduction, but the water companies won't tell you that. It's only because I've worked in consumer law for years that I was aware of this,' says the former trading standards officer.
John Thorne retro-fitted a system to his four-bedroom property in Leicestershire last year and his only regret is that he didn't fit an even larger system.
He installed a number of green technologies, including solar panels, during the refurbishment, but it is rainwater harvesting that has impressed him the most. 'It is the most reliable and trouble free of the various systems we installed.'
As his wife is a keen gardener, he sank a 2,300 litre tank under his lawn but now wishes he had even more storage capacity. 'If I was doing it again I would have had a second tank just for the garden,' the 79-year-old says.
The Stormsaver (www.stormsaver.com) system, which cost him around £8,000 in total, has halved his water bill, delivering a saving of £300 per year. As well as providing water for his garden, it is also used to flush his toilet and supply his washing machine.
Although it will take decades to recoup his investment, Mr Imrie believes that it still makes financial as well as environmental sense.
'I'm sure installing rainwater harvesting has increased the value of the property. So I think I would get my money back because of the growing interest in environmental issues.'
Jules Young, on the other hand, will be recouping her investment in about three years. The management consultant installed a Klargester Environmental/Envireau (www.envireau.co.uk) system during major refurbishment work to her semi-detached Victorian home last year.
'We originally looked at using it for the toilet but the economics didn't pay out because you would need two sets of pipes running through the house, which would take about 12 years to pay back, so we restricted it to the garden,' Miss Jones says.
As a result, her system cost less than £2,000 in total to install and involved little disruption. It also means that if the UK suffers another drought, her garden, which covers almost an acre, is likely to survive relatively unscathed.
'When we installed the system last summer there was actually a hosepipe ban in this area. Avoiding the full impact of a ban in the future was certainly one of our motivations. As we develop the garden over coming years it is going to be very useful.
"It would give us five to six hours of continuous watering, which, during an extremely long period of drought, would allow you to maintain your high specimen plants rather than your whole garden.'
Installing and maintaining the system has also been remarkably stress free.
'Even the builders found it straightforward and self-explanatory, even though they hadn't done it before,' she says. 'It's also easy to maintain as it's not difficult to get to the filter and remove any leaves.'
But is a rainwater harvesting system really necessary in the light of last summer's wash-out. 'Hot dry weather is sure to be a feature of the future, so unless you intend to grow palms this seems to be the way to go.'
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Fact file
5 litres per day is the minimum amount of water we need to survive
120-220 litres is the typical domestic consumption per person
35 per cent is flushed down the toilet
12 per cent is used in washing machines
6 per cent is used in the garden
65 per cent of water consumption occurs in the home
5,000 UK homes use rainwater harvesting
500,000 homes and workplaces use the system in Germany
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Useful links
The Environment Agency website has lots of advice on saving water at home, as well as a report on rainwater harvesting. Go to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/savewater
For data on average rainfall for various parts of the UK, go to www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages
For details on suppliers of rainwater harvesting technologies, go to the sector's trade body, the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association at www.ukrha.org
For information on this and other environmental issues, go to the Centre for Alternative Technologies at www.cat.org.uk. You can also gain advice by calling 01654 705989
If you wish are interested in buying low-flush toilets, waterless urinals, water efficient taps and showers, and flow restrictors, go to www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
By David Waller
full article
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