Book on water

Hi all,

as we all know Water is the most important part
of a permaculture design, however i feel that
this topic is underrepresented in permaculture literature.

I am looking for a good book on water, with an emphasis on
natural materials and ecologial techniques.
Everthing about retention,sealing ponds, creating and
maintaining springs and purifying "dirty" water.

I have read yeomans "water for every farm", and just found
out about "Earth Ponds" by Tim Matson, which is probably my next read,
altough it seems too focused on the pond aspect, while
i am really intersted in the purification aspect.

Can you point to something else?

Hi R, welcome to Permies!

The best book that I can come up with is Water for Any Farm by Mark Shepard found here: https://www.acresusa.com/products/water-for-any-farm

I hope this is the sort of book you're looking for and helps you out.

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 2 by Brad Lancaster is my favorite.  https://www.harvestingrainwater.com/

Hi,
thank you for your replies.
Can you please point out which book is better for designing for drinking water quality?

Drinking water quality would be well for me, after that would be rainwater catchment and tank.

I would look at some of the guidelines for septic-greywater systems for inspiration: settling, aeration/out compete with good bacteria, then sand+microbes.

For me personally it would involve: sand+microbes, fungi+mulch, and sand again. Then ceramic filter for drinking and showers but not for laundry, baths, general cleaning, or dish-washing.

Here's an oldie but a goodie -

https://smile.amazon.com/Waterworks-Owner-Builder-Guide-Rural-Systems/dp/0385175590/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Michael+Hackleman&qid=1582582163&s=books&sr=1-2

Lots of very useful charts regarding pipe sizing and alternative methods for pumping storage and pressuring lines.

I could only find those books on paper, not as e-book.
Are they only available on paper?

Bill Mollison's  "Permaculture - A Designer's Manual"  has a section on water.

I have a paper copy and have downloaded it.

Mollison talks a bit about water and offers this very interesting system
featuring clams that can be used to purify even the dirtiest water to drinking water.
It is the only system i have come along that does this.

I have read "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands Volume 2" and it says a lot
about physical alternations of the landscape and other features to retain water.

However it does not say anything about water purification or water biology in general.
Sealing ponds is not a thing for him, as the aspires the opposite, infiltration
of the water into the ground.

So now i am searching for information on two fields:

1. Drinkingwater
How to make rainwater into drinking water?
How to store it? What else should i consider?
How to achieve drinkable surface water?

2. Ponds
Sealing of ponds (there are interesting threads about gleying in this forum) and general pond
biology. I am most interested in techniques to make a pond oligotroph (low on nutrients) and therefore
gain as clear water as possible.
I do not want to establish one pond but several of them which perform direfferent roles,
among them also some for raising fish.


Can anyone recommend books covering these topics?

Regarding the ponds i found a great resource on the internert:
http://www.fao.org/fishery/static/FAO_Training/

In the directory is also a zip-file that you can download to take the course offline.

Also on another thread here on permies i found the recommendation to get "approval" from regaluar
posters at forums.pondboss.com before implementing your pond project.


I would still appreciate if someone can point me toward some books.

Just ran into a good source for springs, but it is only available in german:

http://brunnen-forum.de/viewtopic.php?t=197