A Desert City Tries to Save Itself With Rain
Tucson, Arizona, is giving residents financial incentives to harvest their rainwater as the desert city works to become carbon neutral by 2030.
11Bloomberg CityLabInnovation2020
The opening
In an average year, Brad Lancaster can harvest enough rain to meet 95% of his water needs. Roof runoff collected in tanks on his modest lot in Tucson, Arizona — where 100 degree days are common in the summer months — provides what he needs to bathe, cook and drink.
A scene
When Lancaster gets thirsty, he sips filtered rain "known as sweet water," he says, having never picked up salt from soil. When he wants a hot shower, he places his outdoor shower's water tank in the sun.
Nearly two decades ago, he illegally cut his sidewalk curbs to route storm runoff into roadside soil beds home to native trees, like mesquite and ironwood.
This is an excerpt. The full story ran in Bloomberg CityLab.
Read the full story at Bloomberg CityLab