Water Storage describes how to store water for home, farm, and small communities. It will help you design storage for just about any use, including fire safety and emergency, in just about any context—urban, rural, or village.

This book includes:

• general principles to help you design, construct, and use any water system
• a look at common mistakes and how to avoid them
• how the different kinds of storage can serve you—tanks, groundwater, and ponds
• how to determine the optimum amount of storage for your needs
• how to determine the best shape and material for your storage
• how to manage aquifers sustainably for inexpensive storage of water in the ground
• plumbing details for inlets, outlets, drains, overflows, access, etc.
• storage accessories and gadgets such as automatic shut-off valves, remote level indicators, ozonators, and filters
• how to build your own high-quality tank from ferrocement
• original design innovations—published here for the first time—to improve the quality of stored water, increase water security, make maintenance easier, and reduce environmental impacts
• real-life examples of storage designs for a wide range of contexts

This book offers underlying design principles as well as design specifics. If you run into a situation not specifically covered, there's a good chance you'll be able to use these general principles to figure it out yourself.

3500 gallon ferrocement rainwater storage urn

Installed water storage typically costs fifty cents to three dollars or more a gallon ($60-200/m3). If you've got this book in your hands, you're probably on the verge of making decisions about hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of storage. On an average water system, this book could pay for itself a hundred times over in savings on construction and maintenance.

Most of the information otherwise available on water storage comes from vendors. Oasis Design doesn't sell water storage hardware, so you don't have to worry about being steered towards stuff you don't need. Rather, we make our living by providing information to help people have a higher quality of life with lower impact.