Permaculture Water Harvesting Through Swales

Geoff Lawton on the use of swales (shallow ditches) for passive water harvesting for individual farms in hot and dry climates.

The genius is that it keeps water from evaporating, by storing it under ground, moving slowly through the soil, and keeping it available for extended periods of time.

As much of Third World agriculture is still rain fed, this is a low cost alternative to huge government dams that need a lot of maintenance and create risks in dam failure.

Where large irrigation dams disrupt people, the ecology, and cost millions to build, small on-farm water harvesting ditches like these can be put in place on any farm, whithout disrupting the area around it.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Water
• Harvesting
• Ditches
• Swales
• Permaculture
• Geoff
• Lawton
• Irrigation

[tigerone1970]

Add a little charcoal, add water, and you can upgrade a lot of land that is now desert.

Also, if globally we kept more fresh water on the land, it might even re-salt the oceans, which are now acidifying.

Thanks for commenting here.

[OGdank13]

@tigerone1970 would you be down to post this whole dvd? I cant find it and i love this guys facts.

[tigerone1970]

@OGdank13

I don't have the DVD and it would be infringement of copyright, however it is available through his website, permacultureDOTorgDOTau (click on store). They still have the Water Harvesting DVD.

[turuanu]

Hi, I have a ton of questions on swales. Can somebody point me to some forum or any way I could chat with someone in real time, or at least have a personal correspondence?

[Wakeuponearth]

Thanks for the video, brilliant.

[Muso57]

Great stuff, Geoff!!  :-)

[ahahahayeahright]

makes me want to buy desert land. we need to start doing this everywhere!