AAs a kid growing up in the desert, you know how bad the water situation is and how we humans make it worse. During my college years, my awareness and anxiety level increased even further because I realized: Wow, I’m part of the problem. I’m consuming too much water along with everyone else.

It was a permaculture course that was the turning point for me and showed me how I could be part of the solution. It looked at how we can work with natural systems and that was when I first heard about rainwater and greywater harvesting and decided to give it a try.

We have two houses on an eighth of an acre in the desert community of Tucson, Arizona. My brother and his family live in one and I live in the tiny house next door, where I have lived for nearly 30 years. In our monsoon season, Tucson and our half-million residents receive more rain than the entire city’s population uses in tap water in our homes.

We had more water than we needed falling from the sky for free, but you don’t notice it because we just dump it. Instead, we import water from the Colorado River 300 miles away and pump it 3,000 feet up, which costs enormous amounts of energy and money. So you have to ask yourself: Why are we wasting all this energy and water when we already have rainwater?

Initially, I started small. I created basin-shaped garden beds bordered by a raised path. When rain hits the path, it runs off into the garden and helps water the plants. I then built a tank to collect rainwater from the house roof and use it in the garden during dry periods. 15 years later, I built another rainwater tank to collect rainwater from another roof and diverted it to my sink and shower, making it my primary domestic water source. I have continued this process of collecting rainwater for the past 30 years, but I became curious about how I could take it a step further.

I started thinking about how I could use grey water, which is used very little in our sinks, showers, bathtubs and even air conditioning, for irrigation. It seems like such a waste to use pure tap water to irrigate the landscape when you think about all the energy we use to get water to that standard and get it to your home. We just dump it in the dirt – it’s crazy.

I started with my washing machine. There is a drain pipe on the back that takes the water straight to the sewer. I decided to add another pipe and direct it to a tree in my yard. Then every time I do a load of laundry, I could just connect the drain hose to the pipe that takes the water to the tree and use that grey water for irrigation.

Air conditioners are also a great source of recycling water. During the hot and humid monsoon season, many people use air conditioners. All the humidity in the house, as well as the moisture from our sweat and breathing, is sucked out by the air conditioners, and the condensate is simply wasted and sent to the sewer. Instead, we divert the air conditioner condensate and recycle it for further irrigation.

The system I have developed over the last 30 years has resulted in 95% of the water we now use to irrigate our gardens and landscapes coming from free local sources. In an average year we receive around 280mm of rainfall and we collect 375,000 litres of rainwater and street runoff.

This means that as a four-person household, we use less than 20 gallons of tap water per person per day, compared to the 100 or so gallons a person typically uses daily. I save a lot of money on my water bill by simply using what is free locally.

Another great benefit is that it is also much better for plant and soil life. You may have noticed that when you water your plants with rainwater, they often look much greener and healthier than if you were to use tap water. This is because rainwater does not contain chlorine, but instead contains all those natural microorganisms that act as a free fertilizer.

A similar effect occurs with grey water, where you get a free fertilizer in the form of your dead skin cells and other matter that is shed when you clean it. It’s this wonderful system of free fertilization. However, you have to be careful what soaps and detergents you use, as they can be harmful to plant life. For example, it’s better to use hydrogen peroxide bleach instead of chlorine bleach.

There are always ways I can continue to learn and evolve to refine my setup, but right now I’m mostly focused on working with neighbors to create community-wide change. I appreciate that it’s a different way of doing things and there’s that feeling of inertia, like, oh, I have to learn something new. But I hope that by sharing my personal experiences and by being a role model, I can show people how rewarding it can be to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

And collecting water brings me so much joy. Whenever it rains, I immediately run outside to see the water flowing into our rain gardens and tanks and the vegetation blossoming with new, vigorous growth, flowers and fruit.

I laugh with every shower and every load of laundry, knowing that the water going down the drain is being directed to our plants and trees, which provide shade and keep me cool. I even giggle when I pee in the shower, knowing that the nitrogen-rich urine is providing free fertilizer for our soil and plants, while the grey water from the shower dilutes and flushes out the urine, ensuring there is no odor.

I even want to wash the dishes and I’m happy to do so, knowing that the runoff from the kitchen sink is watering the fruit-bearing bushes and trees right outside the kitchen window for free. I love the feeling and the feedback I get from responding and cooperating with the creatures around me in a beneficial way.