After having decommissioned the filter that never lived up to expectation, along with some minor tweaks, the spring water dam for the farm is finally completed, many thanks to the expertise of the team at Soilogy. It is currently fully operational, since works began back in early Sep 2019. It’s a huge relief to now be having sufficient water for both shower and irrigation.
The main intake pipe of the dam is fitted with a used engine oil can, riddled with many small holes to keep leaves out. However, fine silt will still enter. This is expected, as I’m now aware that nature can’t be fought against. If this water were to be used for drinking, all I need to do is to just filter it at the point of usage from the water tank. The key point here is that it can never be finely filtered at the water source. Hence, frequent maintenance and upkeep of the dam system has to be made to prevent silt from building up.
The water from this dam travels through a series of 1/2″ transparent water hoses at 30m sections (connected by plastic joint hoses) for a total length of about 500m (position of the final water tank). However, the linear distance between the water source at my neighbour’s land to my farm’s border line is only about 100m to 200m. Transparent water hoses are used instead of conventional polypipes due to cost and ease of maintenance. Should blockages occurr, they can be identified visually, and if not (due to cloudy appearance through time), the pipes are soft enough to be pressed for troubleshooting. They can be cut and replaced fairly easily. Since I’m working with very low pressure and the water line runs through places with minimal activities, polypipes are not necessary.
Shortly after the dam, the hoses are tied to a 15′ long timber pole fastened to the inner side of a culvert, off the ground. This is done to prevent the hoses from being washed off from a sudden gush of water during heavy rainfall. The straight pole also keeps the hose level to prevent silting from building up and clogging the pipes.
Right after the culvert, there’s a very steep drop. Hence, the pipes have to be hung from a series of ropes strung across some trees for support. The idea is to keep the hoses as level as possible to prevent silt from clogging them up.
While this precious spring water resource may be “free”, it does require a fair bit of maintenance. Leaves and debris are held back by the first filter made out of a shallow wall of rocks. After this filter, the creek will run another 20 feet before reaching the main intake pool. This 20 feet of buffer is where the most silt would be collected and removed. However, recent inspection of the dam after a heavy downpour revealed that the biggest silt threat is from the steep slope face on one side of the dam. A ditch has since been dug to channel water away from entering the dam area.
Maintaining a spring water dam like this can be pretty costly. The periodical removal of sand and silt is a huge undertaking that comes with labour cost. Cost aside, having the time or even workers to do so are hurdles themselves. It can be quite counter intuitive to be doing so when financial resources are limited. However, I’ve come to realise that this is necessary as a means to conserve water and protect the environment. It’s easy to just get water from the government but such reliance comes at a greater cost; monthly water and electric bills, infrastructure setup, water pump purchase, etc.
When I establish and manage my own water supply, I am more conscious of the environment and the protection of my water source. I would learn to use water sparingly. The strategy is to implement ways to keep water in your land for as long a time as possible, and slow their movement across the soil surface before they exit the land. This is done by using swales, ponds, ditches, banana circles, water tanks and even vegetation. This sounds selfish, but it’s those rare moments when being selfish with water gets mother nature thanking us immensely. By keeping water in your land, they help replenish aquifers, which would inevitably help boost water table store.
I’m fortunate enough to get an understanding neighbour who allows me to build this dam and use the water. Furthermore, they are not using weed killers or other dangerous chemicals that may compromise water quality. I can also play a more active role to ensure they don’t do so, through education and sharing of the tenets of permaculture in hopes of achieving a convert!
Bearing this responsibility to safeguard my water source has helped me engage my neighbours and take interest in the activities beyond my land. I only have a small 2-acre land. I don’t have a stream. Hence, the limitations of my land prods me to look beyond and apply my permaculture practice on neighbouring lands in hopes of slowly spreading good agriculture practice. This would be very difficult as agriculture is often seen as a profit-driven affair to most if not everyone. But for me, it’s a lifestyle. Hence, the stakes are higher.
The overflowing involvement of my permaculture activities transcends the borders of my farm. I intend to store, reuse and clean water before releasing them back to nature. In this case, the water from my farm may be channeled to neighbouring farms or even ditch that leads to rivers and the national water infrastructure.
One may ask why do so and go into so much trouble generating such clean water waste to only have them polluted again by neighbours. The understanding and desire is this: if everyone works the way I do, such incremental efforts would be helpful to the environment as a whole. I just have to play my role and hope for the best that everyone buys into the idea. There’s only so much I can do.
In short, a spring water dam like this makes me appreciate and respect nature more. The effort that goes into maintaining and securing your own source of water teaches me not to take natural resource for granted. The act of working with natural water supply is the first step towards realising a stable and sustainable food production system.
