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[vassock]

I need to get drinking water. I embarked on a volcano and everything there is fine, just no nearby water. There are a few nearby lakes, but these will not last forever. The nearest cavern with water is over a 100 z levels down and not very close horizontally, either.

[vassock]

Is it possible to build some sort of reservoir to collect rainwater, drain it down a grate below my fortress, mine it under my fortress and build a well over it?

[Hans Lemurson]

Murky pools are your friend.  They have the amazingly magical property of transforming a drop of rain into 1/7 water; a feat which cannot be replicated by any other material known to dwarven science.  Do not under any circumstances to anything to compromise this miraculous substance.

Are you working in a Hot climate?  If so, then the most important thing is getting as much water underground as quickly as possible, and you will learn the value of every drop of water.  In a bit I'll have a picture for you of what I've set up for rainwater collection.

[Fayceless]

Is it possible to build some sort of reservoir to collect rainwater, drain it down a grate below my fortress, mine it under my fortress and build a well over it?

Yes.  As long as there is a decent amount of rainfall, you can get a lot of water from Murky Pools.  I once connected a few pools to supply a system of waterfalls in a fortress.

[Shoku]

In short, yes.

In less short: the "murky pool" tiles will get a few tiles of water if it rains that you might be able to gather up but the big thing is that in Spring they'll shoot back up to 7/7 (or at least they used to) so you can get a pretty good deal of water with a shaft straight down right near the pool.

[Hans Lemurson]

For rainwater collection in a hot climate where any water exposed to the scorching rays of the sun is doooooomed, I recommend the following:

This is your friend the murky pool (side view) All nice and happily filled with water:

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Unfortunately you're in a hot climate and the evil sun killed all the water, so it's empty now! So sad.

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Rainfall helps, but it's really not enough, and it will all just evaporate again.

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Engineering will solve this problem!!!

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When the rain comes, the first drop on each tile "primes" it to get it ready for water collection:

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Then once you get to level 2 water, it will start flowing until it goes over the edge into your collection pond:

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As you over time enlarge your collection pond or make use of the water, make sure that you never let it's average depth fall below 2, otherwise the inherent evaporation of 1/7 water will slowly destroy your hard-fought water resources.  Make sure there's at least one 3/7 tile in the reservoir.