Garden or small non-drinking reserve
A caged IBC offers a small, inspectable starting point where the site and intended use are suitable.
Climate Technology + water resilience · P—48
Rainwater.
Store what falls.
Climate evidence, useful storage and public questions
Rain does not arrive when every garden, farm, building or fire plan needs it. This presentation brings observed climate data, rainfall variation and practical storage examples into one public record.
It also asks who can answer, in writing, when a person wants to store roof rain safely and lawfully.
View all 23 slides ↓The capacities are examples, not standards. The presentation does not predict a UK summer 2027 drought, make stored roof water safe to drink, replace site-specific engineering or give legal advice. Planning, foundations, overflow, contamination, mains separation and local rules still need written checks for the real site and intended use.
Why preserve rain
A changing climate can bring more heat and more rain
without delivering water at the moment it is needed.
The deck keeps two facts together. Long-term warming is clear across independent datasets. UK rainfall remains variable across years, seasons and places.
Storage cannot control the weather. It can move a portion of roof rain through time, from the day it falls to a later useful task, provided the tank, use and local setting are suitable.
Complete presentation · slide 1 of 23
Rainwater
Illustrative storage sizes
Different reserves
answer different needs.
Household, farm building or worksite
A larger tank can support non-drinking uses when roof area, demand, foundations and overflow are checked.
Possible supplementary firefighting supply
Simple arithmetic can show duration, but the fire authority must judge access, flow, siting and usefulness.
Possible farm emergency buffer
The reserve must be sized against actual daily demand, available roof area, rainfall, losses and refill time.
Use changes the question
A garden tank, a toilet supply and drinking water
do not share one answer.
Keep roof rain separate
An isolated garden system avoids a mains connection. Plumbed uses need protection against backflow and cross-connection.
Ask the right authority
Planning, environmental regulation, private-water duties, water fittings and fire planning sit with different bodies.
Do not infer drinking safety
A tank label and a filter do not prove that roof water is potable. Drinking use needs appropriate treatment, testing and oversight.
Plan for weight and overflow
Forty thousand litres weighs about forty tonnes. Ground support, access, drainage, maintenance and failure routes matter.
Questions after the facts
Ask for the law, the site facts
and the reason in writing.
- 01
At a named property, what rule would require permission for an isolated roof-fed tank?
- 02
If an authority restricts a system, what exact law, site facts and health or environmental reason apply?
- 03
How should rainwater for toilets remain separated from the drinking-water mains?
- 04
Would a proposed 40,000 litre supply help the local fire service in practice?
- 05
What roof, demand and drought assumptions would justify 100,000 litres on a particular farm?
- 06
What evidence, if any, could support a UK summer 2027 drought forecast?
Connected practical work · Solutions Now
A real home also needs
water that can endure.
Freedom to Live follows affordable structures through land, permission and essential services. This rainwater publication develops one part of that wider question: how a safe place can preserve useful water without confusing possibility with proof.
Open Solutions Now →Original publication file
Read here.
Keep the source.
The viewer loads one compressed slide at a time. The unchanged PowerPoint remains available with the complete presentation and its source notes.