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Editorial: Rain capture ideas inspirational

Why, one might wonder, can’t we shift some of that rainfall to our drought times?
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Capturing the rainfall to save for a (non) rainy day is something we can all do a little bit of. (submitted)

As the rain intermittently poured down in torrents over the weekend, turning the highways into swimming lanes and lawns into shallow lakes, we thought longingly of the warm summer breezes of July and August.

What we weren’t missing, though, was the drought threat that has hung over our warmest months in the last 10 years or so, worsening as time marches on and climate change becomes more and more apparent, even in our relatively lucky corner of the world.

Why, one might wonder, can’t we shift some of that rainfall to our drought times?

Over the last three weeks the Citizen has partnered with the Cowichan Watershed Board to bring you a series of features on what individuals in the Cowichan Valley are doing to capture the rainfall for those water-lean months.

RELATED: Capture the Rain part 1: Cowichan’s Greenfire Farm picks pond

RELATED: Capture the Rain: Don and Jeanne Ross do a lot with little space

RELATED: Capture the Rain: Underground cistern helps rural couple expand gardens

There have been some pretty amazing ideas presented, and readers have chimed in with comments on the stories telling everyone what they’re doing, as well. Our favourite thing about it is that there are ideas for everyone. You don’t have to have a giant acreage to implement some great water saving measures.

We’ve had a farm that dug out an irrigation pond, a pair of rural homeowners who’ve installed a cistern, micro-drip irrigation and mulch, and a suburban couple who have put in very small ponds, and underground liners to hold in moisture in their raised beds.

On commenter said they had also installed a huge underground cistern before they had their house built, which provides for their summer water needs. This is an excellent idea that anyone who is building should consider. Continued droughts are the wave of the future, and the more winter rainfall we can carry into the summer, the better.

And this is the most effective way to do it, one person at a time, one property at a time. We can all contribute.