[Pil-pc-oceania] Following APC 9
Andrew Carter
eatlessworld at gmail.com
Fri Apr 18 11:33:09 EST 2008
Just a thought the evolving a water manifesto. I thought some great
ideas were generated at APC9 and in the list about this topic. But the
concern I had from the beginning was that focussing on a single theme is
a bit myopic. The advantage of permaculture (or indeed any type of
holistic design approach) is that it is holistic. The problem with the
"system" is that it's generally not holistic. Specialists in water
engineering do their thing, environmental scientists do their thing,
irrigators do their thing and so on. It ends up being a mess (think
Murray Darling).
I feel like we need to discuss issues like water in the broadest
possible context, always remembering why we are doing things. For
example, if every house in the country gets a tax-subsidised water tank
who's to stop people using the water in a lovely concrete water fountain
or perhaps keeping their lawn looking like an immaculate bowling green
that needs daily mowing and fertiliser inputs? My suggestion would be to
include reference to food production, reafforestation etc as a means of
meeting human and ecosystem needs. Well designed systems also recycle
resources like water (ie grey water, effluent leachate as nutrient rich
plant food), so we could talk about the need for system integration and
energy cycling where every element in a system performs multiple functions.
One suggestion might be that we preface the water manifesto with a
discussion about the purpose of permaculture designed water efficient
landscapes (providing for peoples needs and maintaining system health
etc) and some principles. Then have a list of suggested approaches and
examples. I guess it's like working from patterns to details.
It can be valuable to discuss single "issues" like water but I think the
most valuable contribution permaculture can make is to make the
discussion as holistic as possible.
Andrew
RussGrayson wrote:
> Thanks Tamara, for taking the trouble to post the information about PPP
> proposed water policy... I assume this is a draft and it may prove useful as
> a statement in the proposed water report.
>
> A few rough comments...
>
> It states:
>
>
>> If rain persists above 12mm in one hour, water flows across the lands and
>> pools in the swales. No water leaves the property.
>>
>
> Is this legal in Victoria... to prevent runoff to such an extent? I recall
> some regulation about it or some kind of government charges for doing it.
> Darren would probably know more.
>
>
>> What is the ultimate use of this water? Modern swales in California within the
>> settlement of Village Homes stored in their first year about 2m of saturated
>> soil below the swale base.
>>
>
> Does something need to be added about raising saline waters closer to the
> surface?
>
>
>> Rainwater from roofs should be stored in large tanks for every house and
>> impeding bylaws that prevent this should be nullified.
>>
>
> Are such laws still in existence anywhere? Here, councils pay householders
> to install water tanks. Even the apartments down the road have a small
> rainwater tank and a new subdivision has a dual water supply - one supply
> for drinking water, one for non-potable use derived from municipally
> harvested rainwater.
>
>
>> We support a 100% government subsidy for the purchase, construction and
>> fittings for rainwater tanks.
>>
>
> I suggest a 120% tax write off for installing tanks and associated plumbing
> services.
>
>
>> All civil engineers must be instructed on uses of swales
>>
>
> I undestand that civil engineers are acquainted with swale construction
> although they rerfer to swales as contour ditches or infiltration trenches.
>
> Also...
> Second last paragraph needs rewrite. Second sentence in that paragraph is a
> little too sweeping, perhaps.
>
> Does something need to be said about swale construction in sodic soils where
> tunneling is a possibility? Seen a leaky swale in such soils.
>
> I think the document is good but, in places, the level of detail starts to
> read more like a manual on cutting swales than a political manfesto, which
> are usually more rhetorical sorts of things designed to inspire with their
> sweeping allusions to some quasi-utopian state of affairs. See Marx and
> Engels Community Manifesto for the style of manifesto writing (rather than
> for content as it is a product of the age of mercantile capitalism, unlike
> the current era).
>
> As a manifesto, I wonder if something more direct should be said about what
> and how the PPP would plan and implement the types of water conservation
> schemes described? Tax writeoffs? Subsidies? Educational programs?
> Incentives for behavioural change? Social prestige/status symbols?
>
> You know, something along the lines of...
>
> "PPP proposes a national development program for the harvesting and
> responsible use of the nation's waters which would include:
>
> - as already exemplified by civil society and households, the agreement that
> all levels of government and commercial organisations have a responsibility
> to sustainabily utilise the nation's supply of fresh water and that such
> organisations recognise such responsibility in their interventions in the
> water cycle
>
> - tax writeoffs of 120% for individuals, companies and organisations
> installing rainwater tanks and other water harvesting, utilisation and
> infiltration works
>
> - a higher level of tax write off, to 125%, for households, companies and
> organisations that have harvested and stored water plumbed into their toilet
> cisterns, garden irrigation systems and other on-site uses and that is
> compatible with the sustainable utilisation of Australia's water resources
> (this will require more detailed definition)
>
> - tax writeoff of 100% on the cost of water harvesting works on productive
> agricultural land where that is compliant with sustainable landuse
> principles
>
> - legislation requiring the land/housing development industry to install
> municipal water harvesting works in public open space and to make use of
> this, where achievable at reasonable financial and environmental cost, for
> non-potable utilisation by civic authorites and households and/or for
> aquifer recharge through infiltration
>
> - the legislative requirement for all suitable government buildings to
> harvest and store rainwater and to make use of the water by means compliant
> with the sustainable utilisation of water
>
> - federal funding, administered by local government, for R&D into greywater
> processing and reuse where this would improve the cost and resource
> effectiveness and the efficiency of water use
>
> - consolidation and alignment of local government advice to householders on,
> and harvesting and reuse, of greywater, based on the findings of scientific
> and research
>
> - federal funding of a national infrastructure program to adapt existing
> public buildings and structures to a condition appropriate to the safe
> harvesting of rainwater and water conservation in the structure's use of
> water, to be implemented by grants through local government
>
> - a national, public educational program that would encourage behavioural
> change by individuals, households, business and other organisations in the
> responsible harvesting and use of water
>
> - a national, annual award of funds to innovators and organisations
> developing water harvesting and conservative utilisation approaches and
> technologies compliant with the sustainable use of the nation's water and
> that make minimum call upon non-renewable sources of energy
>
> - funding for research and development of water harvesting and utilisation
> technologies compliant with the sustainable use of the nation's water
>
> - annual prizes designed to boost the social prestige of schools, community
> organisations, local government and other entities developing and installing
> innovative water conservation and harvesting systems and for outstanding
> savings and utilisation of water, demonstrating the effective deployment of
> existing technologies and approaches and minimising the use of non-renewable
> energy sources.
>
> Anyway, that's a vague, stream of consciousness set of ideas of the types
> of things a manifesto could get at.
>
> Thanks for sending the info Tamara. Would be good to see the manifesto as
> adopted. Interesting... and good luck.
>
> ...Russ Grayson
>
>
> On 15/4/08 8:14 PM, "Tamara Griffiths" <scarletwoman at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Hi Russ, Janet, et al,
>>
>> Bill and I have been working on the PPP manifesto, and here is the water
>> section so far:
>>
>> He is taking it over to Melbourne for something on water soon.
>>
>> Suggestions welcomed.
>>
>> Love, T
>>
>>
>> Water
>>
>> If we allow 100% for the water that fall on an area of land, probably 80% of
>> this precipitation is as a result of condensation of moist air on leaves. Some
>> countries measure both rainfall and condensation (South Africa and Tasmania).
>>
>> If we allow 100% for precipitation, 88% of it runs off the land and goes into
>> the sea or to inland depressions or evaporates, leaving only 12% for all the
>> duties of water. This is the major waste of water.
>>
>
>
>> If you survey dead level lines across the landscape at intervals not exceeding
>> 100m and commencing at 2m below the top of the slope, then all the water that
>> runs across the surface of the land will pool in channels dug along these
>> lines, ranging from .5 to 3m width and .5 to 1.5 m deep, called swales. The
>> spoil from this channel is piled on the lower lip of the swale.
>>
>
>
>> If rain persists above 12mm in one hour, water flows across the lands and
>> pools in the swales. No water leaves the property. Usually within 3 hours, all
>> this water soaks in and is immune from evaporation or run off loss. That is
>> the swale system affords a total water conservation of precipitation. No other
>> system does this.
>>
>
>
>> What is the ultimate use of this water? Modern swales in California within the
>> settlement of Village Homes stored in their first year about 2m of saturated
>> soil below the swale base. That is now some 18m deep, and we can expect all
>> swales in effect to store vast quantities of water adjacent to the swale.
>> After a few years, trees planted below the line of the swale are drought
>> immune and add their share of condensation moisture to precipitation.
>>
>
>
>> A landscape of swales and trees is in effect drought proof and eternally
>> productive. Thus we believe that all such earthworks should be not only tax
>> deductible but encouraged by all authorities in order to restore landscapes to
>> health.
>>
>
>
>> We have inspected 60 year old swales that FD Roosevelt had people build
>> through deserts, Dug by FDR¹s corps of workers in the 1930¹s. They have never
>> ceased to stabilise the dry lands evaporation and erosion and grow large
>> trees.
>>
>
>
>> A proportion of all state money should always go towards the construction of
>> swales in cities and all farms. This we see as a national priority to off set
>> desertification and global warming.
>>
>
>
>> Swales need to be part of every subdivision plan and are easily placed in open
>> forests because it is possible to dig above and below the survey line and thus
>> around trees. The only places where swales are not recommended by us are the
>> steep slump slopes of deforested basalt flows. These are liable to slump with
>> high water content in the soil.
>>
>
>
>> It is safe for wheeled tractors to create swales up to 12% slope. Above this
>> they must be hand dug or made by crawler excavators.
>>
>
>
>> We believe it is possible to restore the entire Murray Darling system with a
>> national swaling program for the system. This would be a permanent solution
>> for river flow but would never cope with lavish irrigation of unsuitable crops
>> such as rice and cotton.
>>
>
>
>> In Tucson those gardens we have swaled from the downpipe are noticeably green
>> while others are desert gardens.
>>
>
>
>> Rainwater from roofs should be stored in large tanks for every house and
>> impeding bylaws that prevent this should be nullified. Every building can
>> supply its own water needs. Some commercial buildings can supply water for
>> many homes.
>>
>
>
>> We support a 100% government subsidy for the purchase, construction and
>> fittings for rainwater tanks.
>>
>
>
>> All civil engineers must be instructed on uses of swales to accept road
>> run-off on both sides of the road to grow rows of trees as seen in Mexico, and
>> NEVER to concentrate run-off in concrete pipes and shoot it down hill from the
>> road. In this way they have created gullies by our roads.
>>
>
>
>> Directed to go back and swale all of our water. Every desert gulch has been
>> created by civil engineers. Australia can not afford any such incidents. The
>> civil engineer of Pt Augusta created swales and so this town looks like a
>> forest when approached.
>>
>
>
>> Wycheproof collects the water from all housing roofing and pumps it out to
>> holding lagoons for public use. Ideally such lagoons should be roofed to
>> prevent evaporation or covered with floating white blocks to reflect the sun,
>> as in South Africa.
>>
>
>
>>> From: miltech at bigpond.com To:
>>> pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008
>>> 19:08:11 +1000 Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] Following APC 9
>>>
>>> Hi Russ, You are being a bit insightful yourself here and very laconic in
>>> your fluent style this day. I say get something together on water and let's
>>> run it by as many thinkers and practitioners as we can. I will help if you
>>> want me to. The Future Ready will be over in a few days and I will be right
>>> for a bit of a challenge....above the local and personal ones.
>>>
>>> Also Tim send me up those 4x A4 pages and I will type them up and get them
>>> out there too. Silly to hold up proceedings for an hour or so lost sleep. I
>>> can handle that.
>>>
>>> Nothing like a bit of positive action to get you going.
>>>
>
>
>>> Janet
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________ Pil-pc-oceania mailing list
>>> Pil-pc-oceania at lists.permacultureinternational.org
>>> http://jasper.cmsarchitects.com/mailman/listinfo/pil-pc-oceania
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
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--
Andrew Carter
EatLessWorld at gmail.com
Mobile: 0432 406 228 (from Australia)
Int. code + 61 432 406 228 (from overseas)
Skype name: aacarter
Blog: eatlessworld.wordpress.com
Producing environmental radio for:
Earth Matters on Radio 3CR
Broadcast Nationally via the
Community Radio Network
http://www.3cr.org.au
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