Who else?
If there are enough of these ;the places ,where before ,the rain water ran over the ground into the rivers and on to the sea ,in a matter of hours or days.
It now runs into absorbent dams or Swales and saturates the ground and eventually reaches subterranean water deposits ,taking many months to do so.
Or it fills up ponds that can be used for Aquaculture.
And so a convex situation that repels water is transformed in a concave ,absorbent one and turning the area in to a sponge.
The more holes the better and if they do not hold the water but leak ,the water is not lost it is in the ground for months
In Spain and Portugal ,which still display many examples of the conquering Moorish influence one can find many remnants of Water harvesting,such as Aqueducts and tanks underneath the patios ,which collect the rain water from the roofs ,to be used in dryer times.
In Arabia ,on a large scale ,land has been shaped to catch and lead,rain water into sandy areas or to agricultural lands.sand is almost as good as dams because it absorbs water and holds it.
Here in Mexico we collect the rainwater in our school for sustainable agriculture,but it is too near Acapulco to trust the rain water for drinking ,and this holds true for most places ,so we use it for irrigation.The rain water from a gutter runs via a filter into a tank.
In Europe in my parents house ,when i was young ,we had a rain barrel,where the water from the gutter ended up .
this was usual in those days ,but i have seen few in modern times.
We can use this concept also in other ways ,
for example the roof water from the rain,via a ditch can run trough the chicken house ,cleaning it and end up fertilizing the vegetable plot
(this is called the creation of energy flow).
This water used to be Ok in times gone by before Air pollution ,
Today i would recommend it only for washing and irrigation
For more information on Water Harvesting
read The Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get,on Environmental design,.(tagiari publishing, tagariadmin@southcom.com.au) 0% 0 Votes