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From my little experience I agree with John: the costs are in the same range, rather in favour of cement tanks. I built cement tanks in Burkina Faso and used a PVC tank in Mali, both with a capacity of 5000 liters. Unshaded black PVC tanks will accumulate heat and the water will warm-up quite significantly during the day time whereas the water in cement tanks will stay fresh. Of course a cement tank is environmetally more friendly, consider also their respective life times. Our PVC tank in Mali is in service, but our cement tanks in Burkina are leaking and we are at this very moment trying to find out how to get them repaired... Julien Smets