Organic Gardening in a Hotter, Drier World
"Billy" wrote in message
Osmar and some of his compatriots take me across the road to show me
"the system" and some of their alternative water-harvesting techniques.
RIO'S AGONY 175
One method involves building "underground dams." It goes like this: First
the farmers find a dry streambed or natural area of drainage. At the
bottom of this feature, below and away from the slope of the hill, they
dig a long ditch across the natural path of drainage. The ditch maybe
one hundred or three hundred feet long and deep enough to hit solid
rock‹here, about five to ten feet down. Then, within the ditch, they
build a cement and rock wall‹or dam‹lined with heavy plastic.
Tribal Aboriginals did a similar form of water storing in arid zones of
Australia before the white man arrived here. IIRC, there are photos of such
stores at the base of huge rock formation in the big Permaculture 'bible'.
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