Below is a RainCatcher story, Water for everyone, that appeared on globalenvision.org, an initiative of Mercy Corps.
SUCCESS STORIES
Water for everyone
Posted on Global Envision: April 03, 2007
How one individual’s simple discovery, the refreshing taste of pure rainwater, is providing solutions in the developing world.
In Africa, simple solutions are helping provide much needed water. Photo Credit: Jack Rose, Raincatcher.org
In observance of UN World Water Day on March 22, I talked with an individual who has made accessible drinking water and water conservation his life’s work. Jack Rose, the “RainCatcher” has been helping catch rainwater for use in African villages since 2004.
The rainwater experiment began in Kauai in the late 1990’s. Rose, a native of Southern California, was inspired during an El Niño winter that dumped constant rain on the island. That’s where Jack first began drinking rainwater and, a couple years later, the rainy coastline of Mendocino, California became the “laboratory, from which the RainCatcher projects in Africa were born.”
Since that fated time, Mr. Rose has made it a habit to collect and drink rainwater in his everyday life. He invokes the image of a crazed scientist, drinking from a stainless steel cup as the rain falls. He applied this passion for rainwater collection to his career, where he designs homes in Southern California. Inspired by simple, cost-effective design ideals, Jack began drafting and modeling rainwater collection tanks for home use and landscaping.
Imagine the image of a crazed scientist, drinking from a stainless steel cup as the rain falls.In 2004, Mr. Rose was invited to accompany a project called “Water for Children Africa” to Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. He saw the dire need for drinking water across the areas he visited and found simple solutions could create extraordinary gains. He used his experience collecting rainwater at home to set up a rudimentary system in the villages that he visited using RainCatcher tents and natural drainage areas. “Maji Ni Maisha”, a Swahili expression for “Water is Life” came to encapsulate Jack’s experience in Africa and reflect the dire importance of water access in many African villages.
A Raincatcher tank being delivered to Bosiango High School. Photo Credit: Jack Rose
As the RainCatcher vision formed, Jack Rose began a partnership with Kenyan Fred Mango and a company called Kentainers, which produces water storage tanks for distribution in Africa. They are now installing their containers at schools across Kenya.
The schools provide an excellent location for the water tanks. They are generally at the center of villages and represent a source of pride for many villagers. Teachers, students and parents are the administrators of the water system once it is installed and are responsible for the security and maintenance of the container and distribution of the water. A complete system consists of a water tank, rain gutters, and a filter. Each system can be installed in one day and one truckload, carrying five tanks, can provide rain collection systems for five schools.
Jack Rose and Fred Mango, from Kentainers, Inc and director of Raincatcher Africa. Photo Credit: Jack Rose
For Jack Rose, the RainCatcher methodology is a simple solution to one of the world’s most urgent problems: “there are many problems in the world that seem unsolvable … this isn’t one of them.” The materials necessary to install five villages with rainwater collection systems cost approximately $4500, including filters. The filters used are made by the Swiss Company Katadyn and cost around $250 each. The filters are an added expense; rainwater does not require filtration, but it can filter out contaminants collected from dust or rooftop surfaces. Additionally, if filters are installed in the rainwater collection devices, the system can also provide a source of clean water during the dry season. After the collected rainfall has been consumed, water from traditional sources like nearby streams and creeks can be filtered through the tank and cleaned for human consumption.
“There are many problems in the world that seem unsolvable … this isn’t one of them.”It is the RainCatcher’s hope that the next generation across the globe will embrace the earth’s natural abundance of water and use it more efficiently to eradicate the water problems of today. The biggest obstacle to this task is awareness. The plight of over one billion people without access to clean water doesn’t receive the attention that is urgently needed to address the situation. Despite efforts by the United Nations and World Water Day activities, the frustration of unequal water distribution remains the fundamental concern for the developing world. In this struggle, Jack Rose describes himself as the world’s waiter, declaring:
“We are told that we should drink 8 glasses of water a day. Whenever you go to a restaurant, or sit down for a meal, there is a glass of water brought to the table. At humanity’s table, however, each day we are 8 billion glasses short, I am simply a waiter carrying as many glasses as I can.”
Fred Mango, Jack's African counterpart in the Raincatcher Africa Project, demonstrates how to use the filters. Photo Credit: Jack Rose, Raincatcher.org
An example of the tanks that are donated by Raincatcher Africa to each school, they can hold up to 6000 liters of rainwater for human consumption. Photo Credit: Jack Rose, Raincatcher.org
Individuals like Jack Rose are the catalysts of change. He is planning several projects which will help continue his work in Africa and raise awareness about the possibilities of rain collection in both developing and developed countries. One such project is “Water for Everyone,” a film documentary which will tell theRainCatcher story and convey the power of simple solutions globally. You can read more about RainCatcher projects at RainCatcher.org.
Contributed by Lindsay Benson, Project Intern at Global Envision. Lindsay has a MA in International Political Economy from American University and her research focus is in global food policy.
Read more: Africa, California, El Niño, Fred Mango, Globalenvision, Hawaii, Katadyn, Kauai, Kentainers, Maji Ni Maisha, Mendocino, Mercy Corps, schools, Southern California, United Nations, Water for Everyone, Water is Life, water tanks, World Water Day
Malibu Times article, Water is life — published: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 1:40 PM PST
Water is life
Jack Rose’s RainCatcher.org waters the world.
By Ben Marcus / Special to The Malibu Times
An Nov. 10 2006 L.A. Times story cites that dirty water is the second-leading cause of death among children globally.
Malibu resident Jack Rose believes the next worldwide resource battle will be about water. However, if collected properly, there is more than enough water for most of the planet.
Inspired by his travels throughout the world, and for the taste of what he calls a magic elixir, rainwater, Rose is developing systems for capturing and storing rainwater that can be used by future generations of Californians and underdeveloped villages all around the world.
Rose, 58, has been developing what he calls the RainCatcher since the late ’90s, when he was inspired to capture rainwater by trips to two of the wettest places on earth: Kauai and Mendocino.
“In the late ’90s, I arrived on Kauai in the middle of an El Niño winter,” Rose said. “In a rental car wandering around the island, my first response to warm, sparkling tropical rain was to pull the car over, grab a big stainless steel soup pot from our gear and place it on the hood. I continued to catch and drink this elixir all winter. I would stand on the balcony bug-eyed with Einstein hair, raise a glass and toast this bizarre discovery.”
In the winter of 2002, Rose was living in Mendocino, which is green and lush like Kauai.
“I rigged up rain gutters on a cabin in the redwoods and caught many gallons,” Rose said. “This is all I drank for an entire winter–not from necessity, but from curiosity, passion, glee. Aside from the pure fun of catching rain, it is the best tasting substance I’ve ever ingested. Truly a chalice full of delight. One day, while holding up a glass, I realized that over a billion people on the earth can’t enjoy this simple act. What I came to take for granted was not available to many, yet, at times, India and Africa are visited by opulent monsoons, just like Kauai and Mendocino. Right there I decided to design simple ways to catch rain everywhere.”
Knowing that up to five million people around the world die from tainted water every year, Rose became possessed with the idea of capturing and storing water from the skies.
“Like the Richard Dreyfuss character in ‘Close Encounters’ making mashed potato ‘Devil’s Tower’ sculptures,” Rose said. “I began my work.”
A self-taught engineer who worked in construction for many years, Rose found the model for his system in the Golden State.
“I grew up along the coast of California with a mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, in my back yard,” Rose said. “Every year, like clockwork, moisture floats in from the Pacific, hits the Sierra, and drops an abundance of rain and snow. The mountains store precious water in the frozen state for a few months, then release it one drop at a time all throughout the long, dry season. For those billions who are chronically thirsty, all that’s missing is a means to catch and store each season’s rainfall. With the RainCatcher project I aim to bring the mountains to the people, tilting the playing field in their favor. Every possible structure can act as a mini-mountain and catch a lot of water.”
To start his project, Rose went to where the need for water was greatest. In April of 2003, he was invited to join “Water For Children Africa” in a humanitarian journey to set up water storage tanks for schools.
“While traveling through Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa, I designed RainCatchers that people could cob together with local materials,” Rose said. “In the hill country, where every home grows their own food, I showed farmers how they could spread plastic up the hill, berm the sides to make a funnel and direct the next rainfall into storage tanks. I worked with a tent manufacturer in Nairobi to create RainCatcher tents that, instead of the middle rising to a peak, it sloped to a waiting tank in the center. Everywhere I visited in Africa I was greeted with, ‘Water is life, thank you for being here.’ Everyone wants clean water. They have the skill and the will, but lack the resources. I came back knowing that my job is to tell the RainCatcher story, to come up with ways to bring water tanks and filters that require no electricity or moving parts to remote villages and crowded townships throughout Africa.”
Closer to home, Rose is applying RainCatcher to Dolphin’s Run, a Malibu home that will get all its power and hot water from the sun, and most of its water from above.
“Malibu averages about 15 inches of rain,” Rose said. “The formula I use is the square footage of the roof area, divided by two, multiplied by annual rainfall equals the gallons you get for every inch of rain. This house has 5,000 square feet so that adds up to 2,500 gallons of storage a year for every inch of rain. That makes 30,000 gallons of water a year. This house will have a 10,000 gallon storage container buried in the backyard, and that will cover the need for landscaping.”
Rose’s next project is for a village called Bosiango in Western Kenya. The whole story began with an email plea from a David N. Ogachi, who told Rose of the water-borne diseases that his community, especially the women and children, were suffering from, to help install safe and clean piped water.
That began a long back and forth with Rose by e-mail, which can be read on the www.raincatcher.org Web site. Rose is hoping to bring a truckload of six RainCatcher tanks to the village, which will allow them to capture and store 8,000 gallons of water.
“Right now they are getting their water from contaminated streams,” Rose said.
Rose is putting his Miata car up for auction to raise funds for the trip as a part of the effort to install rain-catching systems in places where it’s a matter of life and death.
“This is the real ‘Survivor’,” Rose said. “So I’m thinking about the ‘Global Garage Sale’ where people here offer some of the extra stuff laying around America to be transformed into water storage tanks for Africa. A jet ski here, piano there, etc. How many boats are sitting unsailed in America’s marinas? There’s probably enough stuff here to provide clean drinking water for the entire world. The exchange rate is very good, the reward is great. I’m offering my Miata as the first example of this concept.”
More information about the RainCatcher project can be obtained by visiting the Web site, www.raincatcher.org.
Los Angeles Times article: A global clean-water shortage, November 10, 2006.
Read more: Africa, Bosiango, California, David Nyabuto Ogachi, El Niño, filters, Global Garage Sale, Hawaii, Kauai, Kenya, Malibu, Mendocino, Nairobi, South Africa, Tanzania, Water For Children Africa, Water is Life, water tanks
