It’s 2am. I’m sitting on a nice toilet in a nice hotel room in a nice little town in Africa. But I don’t feel very nice. Three weeks ago I arrived in the town of Musoma on the eastern shore of lake Victoria, Tanzania. It’s my second time here. It’s unusual to return to an old permaculture posting so it felt both strange and comforting to visit old friends. They had assumed I would return again as to them I was family and family never leaves for long. But I am mzungu, white man. And in the West, we never stay for long. But I had not been sick then.

I contracted diarrhea two days after arriving. Not crippling, but enough to make my trips to town short, consciously timed ones. Not bad enough to panic. Perhaps that is why three weeks later I’m sitting on the toilet once again at 2am in the morning. Only this time it’s a little more serious. I contracted malaria two days ago and had moved from the delirious, early stage effects of high fever to feeling just plain horrible. On top of that, I had unknowingly overdosed on a western folk remedy and have been violently vomiting for the past eight hours. My one small cause for relief was a by product of my tiny bathroom. I could release my bowels and vomit into the hand basin at exactly the same time. This I had adeptly managed several times this past evening although I over shot the bowl the first time. Must remember to tip the cleaning lady extra in the morning.

I was not unaccustomed to this kind of experience in my three years in Africa. Although I dare say my friends would not be envying my present situation; this particular African flavour….

GRA is a small non profit NGO based in California, USA. In their own words, they are “committed to building a better world – one based on ‘respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice and a culture of peace’ as expressed in the words of the Earth Charter.” Yes, all NGOs sing a similar song, but I happen to know they are very serious about it. I’ve worked for them before.

About three years ago Geoff Lawton, one of the most respected leaders in the field, conducted a two-week PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate course) in a small fishing village at the mouth of the Mara river. Based on the success of this course, GRA decided to develop a full demonstration garden on a plot in the centre of the village. Geoff contacted me. I contacted GRA. I soon arrived for a three month posting to teach six separate groups and to set up the garden. This new concept was bigger, bolder and more challenging.

GRA had recently purchased two and a half acres of land, with the intention of feeding 70 orphan families in the local community, provide employment and an income stream. All within a sustainable permaculture framework.

Kinesi is a small fishing village on the eastern shores of Lake Victoria. Twice a year the great rains that deluge the Serengeti flood into the great mara river. Kinesi is on the mouth of that river. It takes 45 mins by boat to run from the large local town of Musoma to Kinesi. When the lake is flat, it is a beautific bargain at a little over US$1. When the wind howls across the lake from the east, you check your insurance policy and look nervously for a zip lock bag to cover your laptop.

In Australia, I’m a permaculture designer. In Africa, a permaculture ‘expert’. I love this country. I arrived four days prior to have a handover with the ‘expert’ from Zimbabwe. By the time he left, I had not set foot upon the site or even met my new team. Africa.

The site had been active for three months and the full time team of 12 had been busy. The hectare site had been a blank sheet of heavily compacted grazing land that sloped down to the big lake – some salt affected. The site had been swaled and planted out with a variety of legumes, perennial herbs and vegetables. While the region is in the wet/dry tropical region of central Africa, constituting two wet seasons, our plot had all the hallmarks of an arid design. With the wet season officially underway in less than a week, it was time to hustle.

As is typical in many denuded landscapes, a lower site has to handle a lot more water than that which falls upon it and this one was no exception. A week later we found out.

The first rain episode was a doozy. The lead berm blew out and took a lot of the bean crop with it. The salt exclusion drain worked very well and banana pits filled to the top and began slowly drowning the little suckers. In the next week we made rapid repairs to the wall, removed all the banana suckers from the swampy land at the bottom of the plot, and found a novel solution to release the pressure from the top trench.

Expanding upon the idea of a co-joined circle guild, we redesigned the blank eastern boundary to incorporate a descending array of pits. Acting as a spillway, we engineered the top swale to flow into possibly the largest flow form in Africa. 12 descending pits – each 2m x1.5m x1m deep – very effectively shed the water from heavy rain events sending it cleanly and rapidly into the lake. When the system is mature and infiltrating water more effectively, this can then be shut off and the pits filled with water hyacinth and used more conventionally.

While we were developing the garden, a separate team was constructing a compressed earth, sand and cement building at the top of the site. I observed one day that while the garden team was technically creating a facility to feed the orphans, it was the large structure at the top of the site that was drawing the lions share of the attention. Pondering this, I recalled some advice from a associate many years ago. He said “If you want to get respect in Africa, you have to create something big.” This had been my experience also.

Almost central to the plot was a slight depression that had remained very wet for the past month despite light rains. Of course with enough labour we could have created diversion drains, excluding the water. Or we could guide the water into an aquaculture pond.

While Furuno wrote eloquently of the ‘Power of duck’, little is mentioned of the power of hoe. In an amazingly short time, our hard working group excavated a pond 10 x 15 metres that, while lacking the dramatic presence of a excavator, gave the pond an individual presence and place that no machine could match, helped in no small part one joyous morning when the team instructed one the Mzungus (white man), Phillipe, to dance local style – the ensuing rapturous laughter echoing off the pond wall.

Three weeks later, a pond was completed with a capacity of 150m3, capable of producing approximately 300 mature tilapia every 3 months. Ducks will be incorporated into this system with a spillway on the up slope directing the nutrient rich water gently down the side of the pond to an on-contour wetlands area where taro and rice were planted. The overflow from the header tank will maintain a continuous supply of water to this system and if the windmill fails, the pond can be drained, the fish harvested and the pond used as an additional wetlands area to grow rice or tubers.

While we had 12 full time members, on Friday all the families of the orphan children came in and it was not unusual to have over 50 members digging, harvesting, laughing and singing. With the first harvest of Chinese cabbage came the first departure of mounds of green piled upon heads and bicycles. And great celebration.

Three months can go by very quickly in Africa. And in the tradition of grand farewells and cultural exchanges, the final day on site was a morning of firsts – my first time cooking breakfast for 45 people, and for the team, their very first pancake.

So where next? GRA’s intention is to use the site as a base and from here to spread the knowledge and benefits of Permaculture out into the community and then to greater Tanzania. Now with a strong and successful structure within the fence, the group is now establishing permaculture gardens in the local community using the experience and guidance of Julious Spiti, a consultant from Zimbabwe.

GRA has also just released a documentary on this project. Click here for an inspiring peek at this unique project and inspirational group.

‘Confessions of a Permaculture Aid Worker’ is a weekly podcast show from PRI Australia aimed at documenting the experiences of people out in the field and making more information available about what’s happening in the Permaculture world.

In Episode 3 I’m speaking to Murad from Marda Permaculture in Palestine. He runs a Permaculture demonstration site and is co-teaching a PDC with David Spicer and Brad Lancaster in June 2010.

Links referred to in podcast:

• Marda Permaculture Facebook Page
• June PDC

You can subscribe to CPAW podcast feeds here!

Topics covered in this episode:

• Details and purpose of site
• Conditions in Palestine
• Education and training
• June PDC
• Blackwater
• Pig Grazing and Damage

The ‘Adobe House’, El Manzano’s ecological demonstration house.
All photos © copyright Craig Mackintosh

In the middle of the little El Manzano village, on display to all in the community, is the ‘Adobe House’. This demonstration house is a project by Eco Escuela El Manzano to demonstrate to the community several low-tech but effective techniques for improving quality of life whilst reducing a home’s impact on the environment.

Houses made from adobe bricks are common in Chile, although, increasingly, like many ‘developing’ countries, people are turning towards energy disastrous concrete instead. The Adobe House was not purpose built – rather, it is actually a very old house that was retrofitted in 2008. It is thus a good example of what many villagers could do if they had a mind to.

I’ll share a few of its features.

Against one wall they built a simple conservatory. The earth brick wall absorbs heat during the day, warming the home, and radiates it back out during the night – to ensure an extended frost-free period for vegetables. Well positioned terracotta tiles or other high thermal mass elements can increase this energy buffering as well (even just barrels of water can do the trick). Though not incorporated here, another addition can be to add vents between the conservatory and the home to allow excess heat to pass into the house.

During the hotter parts of the year the ends of the conservatory are easily opened up.

Outside the house and conservatory there’s a trellis hung heavy in grape. It creates an excellent, and edible, shade area under which sits an outdoor table and benches for summer breakfasts and lunches. The foliage dies back during the winter months to let more sunshine through.

Next to this sits a fantastic earth oven. And yes, the bread was as good as it looks:

Other elements include the all-important manual pump for water – without which this community would have suffered dearly during the recent earthquake (see Part I) – and a greywater system for biologically cleaning household waste water, returning it, slowly, to the water table after several stages of natural cleaning.

Potty Training

The ‘centrepiece’ of this demonstration site, however, is this:

A composting toilet (or ‘dry toilet’ as they’re called here)

This elevated, dual-chamber throne room (similar to the one at Zaytuna Farm) serves as the home’s fertiliser collection station. When enconsed therein, or thereon, as the case may be, the room is notable for its lack of odor. Any odor.

Although composting humanure should be regarded as an urgent… um… call of nature everywhere (the world is running out of potable water, and yet we’re crapping in it, and we still haven’t come to terms with the significance of phosphorus recycling yet either), it is arguably even more important here in El Manzano.

I say this for two connected reasons: 1) most of the community here rely on ‘long drop’ toilets (simple holes dug into the ground), and 2) the water table in El Manzano is incredibly close to the surface – in many places barely a metre below ground.

In case the obvious eludes you – this means that these smelly, bacteria-filled repositories will be seeping into the water table…. Yes, this is the same water table they’re pumping water from so as to quench their thirsty lips. If it weren’t for the very low population density here I think we could be looking at some serious health issues.

The Eco Escuela El Manzano team are therefore turning the problem into the solution, by demonstrating how a potentially disastrous waste stream can instead become a resource. The Abobe House has a constant stream of students and interns residing in it – all of whom are building site fertility rather than contributing to water contamination.

Continue on to read Part V: The Design Stage

Please consider contributing to this worthy cause – you can do so via donation links on this page!

Further Reading:

• Compost Toilet – Farallones (237kb PDF)
• Compost Toilet – Minimus (459kb PDF)
• Urine-Diverting Toilet, Vietnam (3.4mb PDF)
• Low-Cost Compost Toilets (3.45mb PDF)
• The Humanure Handbook

I believe the Rocket Pot system is incredibly innovative, and the best nursery tree growing system that I have ever come across anywhere in the world. This system is something that I support because the trees grow healthier and more quickly, and with an abundant root zone. The roots actually grow in an untangled form, rapidly, in full sun, without the need for shade cloth or extra irrigation systems.

Rocket Pots can be used anywhere in the world with a minimum amount of water. It is an incredibly water efficient system because the racks can be flooded, and the water can be returned to cycle through the system again where there is a shortage of water.

Watering times are easily calculated in that water quantities relate to the weight of the pot, and the amount of water in the pot gives the clear indication of when the trees need to be flooded again. If we are growing productive fruit trees or productive trees, they can be fertilized with good nutritious compost tea or organic soakage water. If we are in an area where we don’t need to return that water to the tree nursery watering system, then we can then pass it on to the next growing system in growing beds or crop beds.

The Rocket Pot and Rack setup is a simple system. The ultimate result is that from seed to successful tree, the percentage of trees that live and become high quality, well-formed and successful trees is the best that we have ever seen anywhere. It is not so important to plant trees if a large percentage of them do not become successfully grown or are failures. It is crucial to grow trees that can be planted and become high quality mature specimens.

With this system we can confidently put our efforts into reforesting the world.

Peter Lawton’s Rocket Pots are a success, and are ready for production. This system is a system we need to support.

I encourage anybody anywhere to support Peter Lawton and to put orders in now for Rocket Racks. This is an important initiative that we need to support globally.

For more details, download the 9mb Powerpoint presentation or head to Peter Lawton’s website.

One of 55 eco-friendly homes nestled amongst newly established gardens

An hour or so south of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo is the fishing district of Kalutara. Although only one of many regions hit by the 2004 Tsunami, post-disaster relief efforts here were unique in that Sarvodaya determined to use the situation to create Sri Lanka’s first eco-village.

Designed with the technical advice and guidance of world renowned Australian permaculture experts Max Lindegger and Lloyd Williams, who are affiliated with Ecological Solutions Inc. and Global Eco-village Network (GEN), the village has become a model of sustainable development.

The Sri Lankan government allocated a parcel of land situated five kilometres inland for the purpose, and financing for construction came via Sarvodaya as well as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC), the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the Asia Pacific Forum for Environment and Development (APFED). The combined gifts culminated in the construction of Lagoswatta – a model eco-village, situated on a gentle five acre slope bordered by rice fields, that is now home to 55 families from three villages in the area.

I was of course very keen to take a look, and so after winding our way from the coast, through small farmlets and a rather beautiful and shady rubber tree plantation, I arrived in Lagoswatta for a brief look.

Beginning in April 2005 and completed in 2006, an important aspect of of the work was the involvement of the intended residents in the construction process itself – providing an excellent opportunity to build a sense of ownership and self-determination for their future, whilst giving survivors a sense of purpose that helps them deal psychologically with trauma, loss of loved ones and their subsequent dramatic change in circumstances.

Each earth-brick home in Lagoswatta is virtually identical, measuring about 46 square metres (500 square feet) and consists of two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and sanitation facilities. Each home has its own garden, and practical involvement of residents are positively encouraged with training in composting, gardening, recycling and also maintenance of the solar panel and battery that provides electricity to each home – something many residents never had before. Homes are also equipped with a recycling receptacle and on the edge of the village is a small recycling station where materials are separated and stored for monthly collection. The project also included a Subterra biological soakage system for household greywater.

Water for drinking and irrigation is one of the biggest problems Sri Lankans face. Construction for Lagoswatta thus included fourteen rainwater harvesting tanks to collect roof run-off, five drinking wells and two communal bathing wells.

An important aspect of design for any eco-village are those that encourage community interdependence. In addition to housing, a multi-purpose community center was built that includes a doctor’s office (manned on Mondays), library, computer room, a childcare/Montessori school centre and a playground – all encouraging community interaction and the pooling and development of the creative abilities of individual villagers. Programs assisting in social mobilization and livelihood support foster this development as well.

A boy plays in the community childcare centre

The edge-of-town recycling station – emptied monthly

One aspect of village life I found interesting was that, unlike other Sarvodaya villages, where the very first stage of development is ‘awakening’ to the Sarvodaya principles based on earth care and the ten basic needs, the villagers of Lagoswatta were somewhat thrown together suddenly at a time of extreme stress. Additionally, many of the villagers were previously fisher folk, so once moved from the coast to Lagoswatta they’ve had to take on a whole new existence. Whilst villagers on the whole largely seemed content and adapting to their new surrounds, it was clear to me there wasn’t the same industriousness and cohesion found in some of the other villages who had opted to join the Sarvodaya network out of acknowledgement and appreciation over time of the principles that forms the basis of the movement.

In other words, these people were somewhat thrown together out of necessity, rather than inspired choice.

A Lagoswatta villager harvests compost from his bin

Practical examples of this could be seen by observing the state of different gardens in the village, where some were making excellent use of their land – cultivating quite a diverse range of fruit, vegetables and herbs and developing a lovely shaded environment that is a major advantage in the tropical heat – while others were making merely token efforts.

Some villagers were making excellent use of their garden space

I spoke with a few villagers about how well their solar system worked. One man spoke despondently about how after only four years the battery had already failed and he couldn’t afford the 15,000 rupees to replace it. Considering this man didn’t have power in the shack he and his small family lived in prior to its destruction, I was conscious of how this ‘upgrade’ in their life was making them dependent on polluting technologies that were too expensive for them to maintain. When I mentioned the failed battery in a neighbour’s house, it was explained to me that the first man had not been maintaining the battery as he was told (topping up with water) and so killed it from neglect. Considering this, I remembered that that particular man’s garden was also largely non-existent, indicating either a general lack of pro-active interest or difficulty in adapting, and it made me appreciate all the more the importance of Sarvodaya’s stepped program that prioritises individual transformation at its base.

Each home has a battery that stores power from a small roof-mounted
solar panel. The only appliances for most houses are normally only lights,

a radio and/or television.

As they say, a house does not a home make. In the same way, a collection of buildings and people does not an eco-village make. It became obvious to me that you cannot just lump a divergent range of people together and call them a ‘community’. A truly successful community requires some planning at a spiritual level to facilitate cohesion – and this centres in all involved being inspired with a sense of positive purpose and collectively shared goals. Disasters like that which gave birth to Lagoswatta obviously do not provide the luxury of time for such considerations, but I think this is an important facet to consider wherever possible.

Villagers said their conditions were improved – homes were warmer in winter,
cooler in summer, and power, water and garden features were all appreciated.

The good news is that Sarvodaya’s efforts in this regard continue to this day, and Lagoswatta has become an excellent model for not only Sri Lanka but also for village development and disaster relief efforts worldwide.

Continue on to read Part VIII….

The community centre is appropriate for culture and climate

The community library was spartan, but it’s a start

Composting toilets are culturally unacceptable to Sri Lankans, so Lagoswatta
utilises septic tanks for black water. Outside are rain-fed washing facilities.

A typical Lagoswatta kitchen. Some homes house two or three families, as
families would open their doors to relatives struggling after the disaster.

A children’s park completes the picture. The sign reads:

"This park is a gift to the children from the American people."

By David Perkins (Dharmadeva) – Farm Manager and resident permaculture designer and educator at Kailash-Akhara.

This report provides an overview of many aspects of creating a retreat center and living sustainably using the principles of permaculture. Short updates will be given regularly to keep our wider community informed. See Part I and Part II if you haven’t already.

First phase of building is now complete

The dormitory

After a year and a half of construction in the core area, painting was completed just before an opening ceremony and party to celebrate the annual festival of Guru Purnima on the full moon in July. Four buildings make up the core area: The Temple/Training Hall, Dormitory, Kitchen-Dining Room, and Bath House with composting toilets. We are now practicing, sleeping, cooking, eating, showering, doing laundry, and recycling our poop in shiny new surroundings – a level of relative luxury compared to the stripped-down facilities we began with.

Fruit from grey water

Banana circle, 9 months after planting

Water from personal bathing, washing dishes, and laundry, is dirty, but it is far from being waste. Our system for treating this ‘grey water’, as it is called, is to feed it to thirsty plants in a feature of the landscape known as a ‘banana circle’. We have 6 circles, each with 6 – 8 banana plants, and 1 or 2 papaya trees. To begin this system, a shallow pit is dug, about 2 meters diameter, which is then filled with food scraps and cut vegetation to provide the extra nutrition needed by these heavy feeders. Then, a shower stall or dishwashing station can be placed directly in the middle of the circle, or greywater is piped from sinks to the circles. The first ones were planted at the beginning of 2008; now, 15-18 months later, they are producing fruit in abundance. We have cut the first few bunches, and I just counted at least 9 more coming along… at this rate we’ll be enjoying fruit and giving away our surplus for many months to come.

Electricity from the sun

Kitchen/Dining Hall

This is an off-grid site. We have kept our need for electric power to a minimum by smart design, and currently the extent of our need for electricity is low wattage lighting for 2 buildings, charging laptops and phones, and running the occasional power tool. Photovoltaic panels have been installed on the south-facing roof of the bath house, with the juice being stored in deep-cycle batteries, and supplied around the site through a 700W inverter. It’s a system that is sufficient to meet our needs for now, with potential for future expansion.

“There’s no such place as ‘away’”

Staff in kitchen

It’s a favorite quote of mine, and we have inevitably been forced to answer the problem that it points to: after reducing, re-using and recycling as much as possible, where do we throw stuff away? In a remote rural location like this, how do we responsibly handle the need for waste disposal? The local custom is to use designated spots on the side of the road, as a dumping and burning ground. Not satisfied with adding to that situation, we created our own on-site landfill. 2 pits were dug by excavator, 4 x 3 x 3 meters deep, which swallowed up all the construction debris, leaving some room for future ‘dump runs’. When burning is necessary, a homemade incinerator gives a useful second life to an oil drum, and it helps us burn as hot and clean as possible.

Swales

Azuki bean & Crotalaria provide good vegetation cover on swale berm

Leguminous trees, shrubs and plants mingle with fruit trees in newly planted food forest near a swale

We continue to work on establishing a system of swales for passively harvesting rainwater – not only in tanks and ponds – but also in the soil itself, by means of infiltrating runoff. We now have around 1,100m of swales on the land. The initial excavation work was completed in 12 days in April, and was followed immediately by sowing seeds and planting the pioneer species. The vegetation grew rapidly with the early rains, and is doing its job to stabilize the disturbed soil and minimize erosion. The heaviest rain we’ve had so far was 35mm in 2 hours. That certainly tested the swales, which performed well, filling to about 60% capacity, and infiltrating completely within 24 hours. Rainwater will now more effectively hydrate most of the entire site (about 25 acres/10 hectares) rather than race to the bottom of the hill.

Food forest

A Mango tree puts on new growth in food forest

Following the guidelines for creating a food forest, we are planting plenty of nitrogen fixing trees and shrubs in amongst the tree crops we want to grow. The crop trees we’ve planted so far include: guava, mango, jackfruit, star fruit, tamarind, pomegranate, and mangosteen. Not forgetting of course, the one tree generally regarded as having the greatest number of uses, the coconut. We are looking into good sources for more crops, namely coffee and macadamia nuts. It’s early days – we still have a lot of planting to do, and it’ll be a while before we taste the rewards, but as the saying goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now”.

Rehabilitation of areas heavily impacted by construction

After 18 months of building, there are some areas that are showing the scars left behind after construction work. Specifically, hard compacted soil where roads where carved by repeated driving. These traffic patterns made sense at the time, but now that major construction is done we don’t need roads between our buildings – we need footpaths and attractive landscaping. The first step in this transition is a kind of permaculture first-aid. Small swales were dug to intercept the excessive runoff from the hard bald ground. A thick mulch of rice straw was applied all over, and footpaths of woodchips were laid. Shrubs that will tolerate these poor conditions are being planted, whose roots will help break up the compaction. A nice touch is that the small swales are now planted with flowers that we’ll use in ritual offerings, thereby keeping a supply of fresh picked flower heads at hand on the way to the temple.

A swale helps restore the site of a former dirt road

Plan for our Rocket-Powered hot water system for the Basecamp shower + bath block

Spending all your day gathering sticks for a hot shower is just no fun. No fun at all. Mind you, anything that results in a hot shower (or even better, a hot bath) has to be considered a priority at Milkwood. So when Nick finished converting the old ‘Sunbeam Sheep Shower’ structure (basically a new-fangled sheepdip) to a shower block with a little wood-fired, home-made firebox thingamy to heat the water for the shower and the bath, that’s what we did. Lots of stick-gathering.

The romance of wood-fired hot water quickly wears thin, however, if your water-heating system is not terribly efficient. Because this means the system requires a fair deal of wood to heat the water, which therefore releases a corresponding amount of CO2. And also results in lots of stick gathering. So Nick went searching for the most super-efficient, super-simple and super-funky heating system idea he could find, which could then be converted to a water heating system. And thus we discovered the glory that is the Rocket Mass Heater.

Nick Ritar + Si Horsely cobb around the burn chamber and firebricks to protect them

The basic premise of a Rocket Mass Heater is that the heat energy of a small, very hot-burning fire is used in a optimal way to get the utmost out of that heat energy. Hyper efficiency with minimal fuel input. Ianto Evans + Leslie Jackson, a couple of Permies who are prettymuch gurus on this subject, put together a great little book called Rocket Mass Heaters and this was our inspiration and guidebook for our project. The heat of the small fire is drawn up through a vertical heat riser of some kind, which creates an updraft and therefore causes the fire to burn extremely hot. A hotter burn means less smoke. And less smoke means more hot water per handful of sticks.

Then the hot gases in the riser is put to work – pushed (or pulled) under hot plates, past water boilers, underneath cobb benches, through thermal mass walls – wherever you need to heat. By the time the hot gases make their way out to the outside world, they are spent, and much cooler – the heat energy has been transferred along the way to whatever needed to be heated. Hurrah!

The completed system – two days work, all told

Rocket Stoves are quickly catching on in various places around the globe – because they’re so fuel efficient, for example, they’re being used in development aid projects where fuel is scarce. And because they’re super simple, they can be made by prettymuch anyone with a need, a plan and some simple tools. There’s a stash of great Rocket Stove projects that have been done around the world at RocketStoves.org. 

But back to us at Milkwood. The making of our Rocket-Powered water heater took two days for two blokes. The above diagram explains it all pretty well. Firebricks in a pattern with a burn chamber in front, topped by an insulated heat riser, topped by a small heat exchanger, topped by a chimney. The water came in one end of the system from the bottom of the water tank, then passively circulated between the heat exchanger and the hot water tank (just a normal hot water tank like you would have on your normal western hot water system) once the fire was going via simple pipes and the power of convection. A handful of sticks in the burn chamber set the fire going. Then we waited and finally turned on the shower tap and… voila. Steaming hot water for one shower. Hoo-bloody-ray.

Post-wash, the water flows into a greywater trench which waters a planting of She-Oaks (Casuarinas) downhill from the showerblock. These will, in time, yeild excellent stickwood for the fire, as Casuarina wood is some of the hottest burning wood in the world. Which is the closest we’ll come to closing the loop (in terms of energy, carbon and responsibility) on our daily shower anytime soon… which makes for a very happy shower.

A handful of sticks is all you need…

Here’s a Flickr set of the construction process – it should give you a good idea, it’s fairly thorough. Feel free to ask questions if you like, I’m sure Nick would love to wax lyrical about his beloved Rocket construction.

So viva la Rocket Stove. These things are hyper-efficient. They should take over the world, I reckon – what is a better beacon for sustainable, responsible living than a guilt-free hot bath?

 Happy Nick bathing in the glory of his Rocket-Powered Shower

**Notes on this system for safety: you want a pressure relase valve on the hot water tank (most have them on already) so the water tank doesn’t explode, and also a tempering valve on the hot water outlet (so no water hotter than 60º comes out), so that no one burns themselves during their lovely wood-fired shower.

Last time I spoke about the world’s largest earthworks project – an incredible and unrivalled example of large scale water harvesting. Today we continue the tale, highlighting the beautiful and practical Kuttam Pokuna, or Twin Pools, found at Anuradhapura in north-central Sri Lanka.

The Twin Pools at Anuradhapura

The massive reservoirs you saw last time allowed for more in antiquity than just growing rice. In this instance, two large granite pools were created and supplied with water from a rainwater-fed reservoir three kilometres away via an underground pipe (most water transfers in these systems were by open on-ground channels, but this one was different). It is believed the smaller, northern pool was constructed in the 8th century AD, and the larger one in the 10th.

The purpose of the pools? Well, there were, at the time, 5000 monks living here at Abhayagiri Monastery, in an area of about 500 acres. 5000 monks needed to stay cool, and needed to bathe, just like the rest of us. There were about twenty pools in the area, but only two were positioned right next to each other, and these were also the most elaborate and beautiful.

The water from the pools was recycled – feeding rice paddies nearby, which in turn fed the monks.

On the waterline on the far side, just to the right of dead centre of the image,
you can make out an exit drain. This one drain bled the water from both pools
– and into neighbouring rice paddies.

And, before it got this far, water entering the pools went through a clever filtration system that ensured the monks weren’t wading in impurities.

A three kilometre pipe emptied into the filter shown here in the foreground, via the
hole you can see at far right. Water needed to reach a certain height (about 12 inches)
before it could progress to the next chamber, leaving heavier-than-water items behind
where they could be periodically scooped out. Even the centre chamber – the final
one before entering the pool, had a raised exit pipe, as you can see.

A five-hooded cobra, considered a guardian of water, protects the inward
flow at the northern end of the northern pool (next to the filter).

So, many centuries ago, we had harvested rain water being transferred very accurately, via pipes made of eco-friendly materials, and used to service man’s recreational and hygiene needs – before emptying out into ‘the garden’.

There really is nothing new under the sun.

Follow up with:

• The World’s Largest Water Harvesting Earthworks Project
• Letters from Sri Lanka Series

When rainwater harvesting is mentioned, most people think of tanks straight away. That’s a great start, but there is a much bigger storage you have available to you on your land – the soil. (Check out Brad Lancaster’s fun U-tube video on this site, ‘The muffin tin and the sponge’ for a good intro)

So when your gutters flow and your tanks are full, don’t send all that valuable water straight the drain like so many do. Instead, have a go at utilising that water in your garden by creating a system similar to this.

Rural and semi-rural permaculture systems are often built with swales incorporated. A swale is a water harvesting ditch on contour which intercepts runoff, then fills up and holds onto the water long enough for it to soak into the soil for the use of tree crops (You can see plenty of examples of swales on this website).

Swales are fantastic, however, in an urban situation not everyone wants to have a garden that resembles a motor-cross track, nor gaping wide trenches that Granny can get lost in. The French-drain design explained in this article is an alternative, which has the same benefits of a swale, whilst being pretty much invisible.

Designing

Just as with swale systems, whenever we are infiltrating large amounts of water into our soil, it’s very important to include trees as part of the design; if not, you risk water logging and quite possibly salting the landscape.

Don’t just wack one of these in; you can put a whole series of them throughout your forest garden for example. When you’re deciding where they’ll go, it’s good to be aware that most fruit trees like to drink and eat at their dripline, so therefore this is where it makes sense to position your trenches. For young trees you’ll need to decide where the end dripline will be and position them there. It’ll take a while for the young tree’s roots to reach out to the moisture you’re infiltrating for them, so in the meantime, you can dig a finger off the side of your trench to direct water closer to it’s young root system.

Gravity is your best friend when playing with water, so start off by directing your downpipes or tank overflow to the top corner of your land through some 90mm PVC pipe (even if you think that your land is flat, there will always be some fall. If not, you’re either living in the middle of a salt-pan or an indoor basketball court). From here, work your way down the hill and position a trench wherever you have trees and shrubs that can utilise the moisture. Just make sure that you’re infiltrating water at least a few metres away from building foundations or else you can undermine them.

Size and shape

Each trench should be about 50 cm deep. Any more than that and you’ll be infiltrating the water below the main feeder and drinker roots of your fruit trees.

If your land is relatively flat, you can get quite creative and make them basically any shape you like. However, if you are on a slope, you’ll need to make sure that they are positioned across the slope, that is, on contour like a swale. Just remember, the bigger your trenches, the more water it can hold, and therefore, the more water it can infiltrate.

The construction is quite simple as the illustration shows:

90mm PVC pipe. Begin with some 90mm PVC pipe heading from your water source with an open 90mm Tee pointing downwards at the centre of your trench. The top of this pipe should be about 10 cm below the surrounding soil level.

Reln drain. Over the top of the PVC pipe you place an impervious reln drain with a gap of about 5 cm above the pipe (a reln drain is a corrugated half-pipe about 40cm in diameter and comes in 1.5m sections. They’re designed for use in septic tank leach fields and cost about AUD $15 at plumbing supply places). The reln drain should be well supported using old blocks or bricks to prevent it sinking over time, and to prevent pressure on the PVC pipe if it’s walked on.

Budgie wire (the red line on the picture). This is placed over the base and ends of the reln drain and also at the opening of the tee. This is to prevent the mulch (which the trench is filled with) from floating up and entering the pipe.

Old plastic (the yellow line on the picture). This is used to line the base of the trench, which encourages water to infiltrate laterally towards the trees’ main drinker roots, rather than straight down.

Mulch. The trench should be filled with either coarse mulch or aggregate. The purpose of the reln drain is to create an air gap around the pipe, which stops tree roots from clogging it up (see the front view below). If you decide on mulch to fill your trench, it will need to be topped up from time to time, but will eventually become a lovely big humus sponge. If you decide on aggregate, you’ll need to line your trench with Geo-textile matting to stop tree roots and soil from clogging it up.

So basically, what happens is the water flows along the pipe until it comes to your open tee where it has no choice but to pour out into your trench.

Once the trench fills up to the height of the tee, the water will then continue along the pipe until it gets to your next trench which it will dutifully fill etc etc.

On urban properties, a lot of water can run off all those hard surfaces during a wetter period or during a large rain event (A note to Victorians: They will come again one day, I promise), far more than our gardens can infiltrate. So it’s really important to be mindful about the possibility of flooding your neighbour’s or even your own house.

To avoid this problem (quite possibly very costly), once you’ve caught and infiltrated all the water you can/need, you’ll need to divert it back into the stormwater drains before it rushes onto buddy-next-door’s place (by law in Oz, you’ll need a plumber or landscaper to do this job, but before you do, have a chat with your neighbour cause he might like to use the runoff himself).

Similarly, there will be times when your soil is already as wet as it needs to be and if you send in much more, you’ll just end up making your soils anaerobic and you’ll also leach valuable nutrients from your system. To avoid this, plumb your system so that during these wetter times you can just send the water down the drain.

Good luck and happy drought-proofing!

Cam Wilson, www.forestedgepermaculture.com

Greywater mulch-pits provide an excellent solution when re-using greywater on your garden – they are cheap to construct, they improve the quality of water entering your soil and after some time provide you with valuable compost. They’re very easy to construct too. You basically just dig a hole, wack in some 100mm ag-pipe and then fill it up with nice chunky mulch.

Where possible a number of pits should be constructed around the garden. This enables you to rotate your greywater around and prevent the inevitable waterlogging that occurs if you leave your hose in one spot too long. For flat ground it’s great to create round pits, with each one midway between a few fruit trees. If on a slope, they will be on contour and can double as a swale.

The volume of each pit should be about 4 times the peak flow that leaves your house at any one time. For example if your washing machine pumps out 100 litres, the size of the hole needs to be 400litres (as a guide, 1m3 = 1,000litres). This is to allow for the space taken up by the woody mulch (about 2/3 of the volume) plus a bit extra. 40 cm is plenty deep enough, or else you’ll start to send most of the water down below the main feeder/drinker roots of your trees.

If you have very sandy soils in which most water just disappears straight down, it can pay to line the inside of your pit with plastic. A few punctured holes here and there allow you to infiltrate the water in the direction(s) of your choice. It also gives the critters more time to clean up the water.

With the huge increase in the use of greywater on Australian gardens, particularly here in Victoria where we’ve been on restrictions for a number of years now, there is concern about the effect it will have on soils in the long term. Even if using liquid detergents, which are much lower in sodium and phosphorus than powders (see lanfaxlabs for more info), the alkaline nature of soaps will affect soil pH. Fats and oils from our bodies can also clog up soil pores and make them hydrophobic and any bleaches or harsh cleaners will of course have a huge impact on soil life.

By filling these pits with chunky mulch, this acts to filter and clean the water, resulting in better quality irrigation for your valuable fruit trees. It’s not the mulch that does the filtering but rather the tiny soil critters that will colonise its surface and just like in a reedbed system, they greedily grab onto any nutrient that passes by. Inevitably, this mulch will be broken down into compost, at which time you should say “Awesome!” and fork it out of your pit straight onto the fruit trees beside. Then, give your local tree lopper a call and get a free/very cheap load of mulch delivered and refill them. (By the way, this is so much easier than cleaning out a clogged up reedbed, plus you get the compost out of it instead of a mess of aggregate you don’t know what to do with.)

The simplest way to get water to each pit is by extending the washing machine outlet hose. You can rotate this hose once a week or so. A few tips to prevent your washing machine’s engine from burning out: 1. Utilise gravity as much as possible; 2. Over 10m+, ensure the extension hose is at least 50mm to reduce strain on the pump; and 3. Don’t pump uphill (if you do need to, you’ll have to get a pump built for this purpose).

If you include an appropriate length of 100mm ag-pipe inside each pit, with one end just slightly sticking out, this means that you can poke your washing machine hose down inside so that the water infiltrates sub-surface as regulations rightly demand (stops kids and pets getting sick from the pretty nasty pathogens that greywater can contain).

If you want to utilise your bath and shower water also, by law you’re supposed to get a plumber in to divert the water. From here, a more permanent option is to construct branched drains which evenly distribute the water around the garden. Detailed design and installation instructions are available for this method in Art Ludwig’s book The New Create an Oasis Using Greywater.

You can irrigate a 1/8 acre suburban orchard for under $200, which is pretty good value I reckon compared to the $10,000-$20,000 approved treatment systems.