Why use a cistern?
Cisterns were commonly used on farms back in the 1800’s as a source for fresh water in areas where wells could not be dug deep enough for water. Today they are quite commonly used in the Caribbean and other areas where well water is scarce or too costly. The state of Texas has quite a substantial web site devoted to the installation of cisterns and some of the cities offer rebate programs for those who harvest rain water. If you are interested in learning more about cisterns, you can download a booklet in pdf format: Texas Guide to Rainwater Harvesting. Our intentions for using a cistern are as follows: 1) It will provide a source of soft water for washing clothes, taking showers and using on plants and eliminates the need for a water softener. (If properly filtered, rain water can be a safe source of drinking water. We will wait and see what the quality of the well water is before determining our approach to this.) 2) It provides a backup source of water from our well (yet to be insta
