Average rainfall 11 to 41 inches per year -- more than I expected in AZ. Still, to have reasonable water year-round for 2 people you'd need to collect across maybe 10,000 square feet? That's not a small installation.
I was going off 100 gallons per day per person, which is typical, but can obviously be improved upon. But that said, I don’t want to pay $7000 per year just for water. Plus living remotely like that is just terribly inefficient in general: food, trash, heating/cooling, transportation, water, and just everything all take much more effort/resources to produce in a solo venture like that. I’m not saying I don’t see the appeal, but the Earth could not (even remotely) support everyone living that way.
No idea of the situation there, but rural areas in our part of the world tap underground sources for water. It gets pumped and filtered on premise. Septic is a big tank with a field up front for dispersing fluids/liquids. Commenter below mentioned trash, but if you are applying some basic sustainable living techniques, the amount of trash produced should be minimal to none.
If you’re buying land in AZ without a reliable well or utility hookup, you’re buying a nightmare.
There is plenty of land with reliable water there.
Rainwater for irrigation, maybe. But the reality is, most of AZ gets monsoons a couple months a year, and then essentially zero precipitation. So unless you have land favorable for setting up a dam or something, you’re going to have a hard time living off that kind of setup.
Flagstaff and Phoenix/far south being a bit different.
