Gifts for World WATER Day
Water comes from the sky, from the ground…or by truck.
March 22nd is World WATER Day. This same week, the UN is also meeting in New York to discuss the topic, in order to accelerate the Water Agenda and be able to cover SDG6.
In 2022 we have experienced the hottest summer since 1950 according to Aemet and we are just now coming out of a winter of long term drought. In the urbanization where we live we needed tanker trucks last summer to fill the large tanks that supply water to the population, because the local source dried up. Right now we cannot water the gardens unless we use rainwater or reclaimed water (for the moment we are doing well with the latter, the rains can wait!) and we cannot refill the swimming pools (there we have to redesign, or give up!).
Only in Catalonia more than 250 municipalities have had to opt for daily restrictions last summer and in many communities surface water reserves have reached below 30%, as right now in Catalonia. The Sau reservoir alone is at 8.80% of its capacity (see the second photo), in the last week of winter, with disastrous consequences for the flora and fauna that had settled in that ecosystem.
The land is dehydrated, the water tables are shrinking, they are getting lower and lower and more polluted in some areas, and by extracting water from them with a great use of energy we (a)bring with it more pollutants and we need more energy to regenerate and make it drinkable.
Crops are lowering their quality and yields and in large forest stands tree mortality is rising every year. And with headlines like this one: Catalonia becomes the new Andalusia due to drought (larazon.es) we may find it hard to confront a situation that may no longer be reversible.
In front of this Positive Feedback Loop (which reinforces the situation) we should stop looking only upwards.
It is not in the sky that we need to look for water, it is on the ground.
The Hydrological Design of the landscape in micro and macro scale is presented as one of the most useful and efficient strategies to increase our water resilience, and the pattern is the same if we talk about capturing water in the watershed as if we talk about capturing rainwater in our homes. Much of the cause of erratic weather is in our land use, industrial agriculture and deforestation for various purposes has thrown our natural wind and rainfall patterns too far out of balance. Desertification is on the rise.
What to do in the face of this scenario?
Let’s take action with permaculture!
In La Casa Integral we work with what there is, and with what can become; from the pattern to the details, from macro to micro and back to macro, leaving spaces for the abundance to emerge that explodes everywhere if we work with nature, not against it.
We work at all scales and with all types of contexts. In Holistic Design everything is connected, so anything goes, anything you can support to be a guardian of Water is valid, from changing your consumption to implementing a wastewater reuse system in your home, from supporting a producer/farmer with your purchase to changing your way of farming if you are that person! And we need every action, however big or small, in order to slow down, mitigate, or adapt to the new climate reality.
We invite you to look at Nature Based Solutions (SBN or NBS) for the Territory, the Home and the Person, because in Nature there are Solutions!
And with a deep observation we can get to restore ecosystems in the best way, in favor of Life.
Today we want to give you part of our educational resources on the theme of WATER. Our gift to Gaia for this World WATER Day 2023 is to share with you a few worksheets of our educational sessions. We use them as a basis for the facilitation of our introductory workshops of a single day with 6 “teaching” hours, in them we also have linked several resources that we find interesting. Maybe they will help you, it is a work in progress, with the goal of one day having the complete facilitation manual of our #SABER course or even the complete CDP online.
Posters of the introductory day of the A for WATER, if we use posters (for the more advanced trainings we work with slides, cartography, photos, books, etc.):
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 | Missing Swale and Key Line | Missing SIP and SIRAR poster |
If you want to deepen in the reuse of domestic wastewater, we have our online mini-course: Domestic Wastewater – The Integral House
You will be able to experience this day as described in the 4 cards that we share (perhaps with some adjustments or other new dynamics that come to mind) within the framework #SABER, 5 training days, or within the framework #SABERES, 7 training days, already more complete, at our home in Vallalta, l’Alt Maresme or wherever we are invited to present it (registration, dates and more information by mail: info@lacasaintegral.org).
You can also schedule the next edition of our CDP online from 09/21: CDP #SABERES – The Integral House
And if you prefer to hire our consulting and/or design services, of course we will answer your questions and give you our rates if you write to us at info@lacasaintegral.org.
Let’s re-hydrate the territory, let’s re-hydrate our minds, let’s change the paradigm, let’s design permacultures!
#AGUAESVIDA
