There of course is the option of communal rainwater collection as practiced in much of Southern Italy.
Time for Los Angeles to learn from Sassi di Matera and it’s ancient rain water harvesting system organised by the community for the community… Worked for millennia in an isolated aired part of the world
Cisterns and water collection[edit]
Matera was built above a deep ravine called Gravina of Matera that divides the territory into two areas. Matera was built such that it is hidden, but made it difficult to provide a water supply to its inhabitants. Early dwellers invested tremendous energy in building cisterns and systems of water channels.
The largest cistern has been found under Piazza Vittorio Veneto. With its solid pillars carved from the rock and a vault height of more than fifteen meters, it is a veritable water cathedral, which is navigable by boat. Like other cisterns in the town, it collected rainwater that was filtered and flowed in a controlled way to the Sassi.
There was also a large number of little superficial canals (rasole) that fed pools and hanging gardens. Moreover, many bell-shaped cisterns in dug houses were filled up by seepage. Later, when population increased, many of these cisterns were turned into houses and other kind of water-harvesting systems were realized.
Some of these more recent facilities have the shape of houses submerged in the earth.[5]
EDIT: To say it’s an incredible place, the water collection system amazing we saw it in mid August and you get a real sense of the struggle for survival and vital interdependence.
