Monday, October 3, 2022

Catching Raindrops

Suppose we know the area of a country and the average annual rainfall. And then suppose that we also know the population and the daily water consumption, then we can work out what proportion of drops of rain that fall need to be captured for use by people.
We convert the daily consuption to annual and then compare the volume of water that is consumed with the volume of water that falls as rain.
Inputs
Population people
Average Water Consumption litres per person per day
Land Area square kilometers
Rainfall meters per year
Result
Proportion of raindrops to catch %
(If you change one of the inputs above and hit enter, then the result will be updated.)

Singapore has approximately a population of 5.9 million people, they use 141 litres of water per person per day. The land area is small: 729 sq km, their annual rainfall is about 2.2 meters. So if they captured 19% of the raindrops then they'd meet their water needs.
On the other hand, Ireland has a slightly smaller population but much larger land area and so they only need capture a much lower proportion of their raindrops.

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