Catching rainwater

What you need

• A tarp, a poncho or a sheet of plastic
• A pot, a jug, a bag or anything else that holds water
• Cord to rig the tarp
• A small stone or a short piece of cord to make a drip point
• A bandanna or a clean cloth
• A filter, or a pot to boil in

How

1. Rig the tarp on a slant, high on one side and low on the other, so the rain runs to one edge.
2. Make a drip point at the low corner. Tie a short piece of cord to the corner and let it hang into the pot, or set a small stone in the tarp just above the edge so the water gathers there and pours off in one spot.
3. Let the first of the rain run off onto the ground. It washes the dust, needles, bird droppings and bugs off the tarp. Start catching after a few minutes.
4. Set the pot on level ground, and weigh a light container down with a stone so the wind does not take it.
5. The tarp over your shelter is already a catch. Put a pot under its low corner too.
6. With no tarp, wrap a cloth tight around a tree trunk with a tail hanging into the pot. Rain running down the bark follows the cloth down. Strain it through the bandanna after.
7. At first light, drag a clean cloth through wet grass and wring it into the pot. Dew is slow work, but it is water.
8. At the cabin, run the gutter into a covered barrel with a screen over the opening, and let the first flush off the roof go to the ground before you open the barrel to it.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

Every millimetre of rain on a square metre of tarp is a litre of water. A tarp three metres by three in a steady 5 mm of rain gives you about 45 litres, far more than you can carry.

On this island the rain comes often enough that a tarp and a pot can keep a camp in water for days. See Finding water.