How do you drought-proof your permaculture project?

Meridie Fricker wrote:
His presentation outlines how this can be avoided in future droughts.

Do you have a link to a recording of his talk?

Sam Bush wrote:If you are going to drill a well or have the money, drill into rock. There are oceans of water far below the aquifer. It is under pressure and comes up thru vertical rock fissures. Once tapped it doesn't stop, unless rarely an earthquake might alter water path thru the rock. It has been drilled for since the 1920's but it's hardly mentioned since water control is power and unlimited water is not wanted. Search, primary water.

Since antiquity, the source of water generated deep within the Earth, clearly defying the conventional scientific hydrologic cycle explanation, has been a mystery..."

[...]

"One cubic kilometer of granite, under the right conditions, will yield one billion gallons of primary water." — Stephan Riess

"Primary water wells are not a new phenomenon.  Stephan Riess was drilling wells all over California and in the Middle East as far back as the early 1930s.  Pal has traveled to Africa numerous times, drilled six wells in Kenya and Tanzania, producing over 3,000 gallons per minute in an arid land with less than 10 inches of rainfall per year."

For me, this raises more questions than it answers:

Is primary water a renewable resource?
In other words: Is it renewed by nature at a speed at least as fast as the speed of its consumption by humans? And here we should pause and consider the current mainstream thinking paradigm of (theoretically) limitless economic growth, limitless consumption, urbanisation, and all the other "wonders" of our times.

Is the technology for drilling for primary water accessible to everyone? Can Farmer John from Anywhere drill a well to extract primary water from under his fields? (And here we're not even considering the geology of the place...)

Given the law of unintended consequences, what happens when abundant *primary* water is made available in arid regions? Can you or anyone predict with a fair degree of certainty that the sudden abundance of water in, say, Kenya will only lead to desirable things? We know of cases from history where the availability & intensive extraction of a resource led to the over-use and depletion of that resource, AND to a re-shaping of the socio-economic fabric of communities, with far-reaching consequences.

Here's this example of (unintended) effects of water (from bore holes) being made available in an arid zone:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167564803800205
and this:
https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/60229/8.3.Radatz.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

For me, this raises more questions than it answers:

Is primary water a renewable resource?
In other words: Is it renewed by nature at a speed at least as fast as the speed of its consumption by humans? And here we should pause and consider the current mainstream thinking paradigm of (theoretically) limitless economic growth, limitless consumption, urbanisation, and all the other "wonders" of our times.

Is the technology for drilling for primary water accessible to everyone? Can Farmer John from Anywhere drill a well to extract primary water from under his fields? (And here we're not even considering the geology of the place...)

Given the law of unintended consequences, what happens when abundant *primary* water is made available in arid regions? Can you or anyone predict with a fair degree of certainty that the sudden abundance of water in, say, Kenya will only lead to desirable things? We know of cases from history where the availability & intensive extraction of a resource led to the over-use and depletion of that resource, AND to a re-shaping of the socio-economic fabric of communities, with far-reaching consequences.

Here's this example of (unintended) effects of water (from bore holes) being made available in an arid zone:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167564803800205
and this:
https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/60229/8.3.Radatz.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y



All those questions are answered on the primary water website.  The Primary Water Institute is dedicated to teaching what is known about the volcanic origin of water

It's a forever source of water relative to how long the earth has been here.  It is generated deep in the earth. Major sources of water all over the world have been running from it for 1000's of yrs as mentioned.

It can be drill for since they have done it 100's of times and it's not any deeper than any other wells presently people drill for, just into rock instead which they do. Go to website and see the video's of them doing it.

Those links you gave is for the ground water and not much deeper Primary Water

The Garlock Project - Drilling for Primary Water in the Tehachapi’s

Drilling a Primary Water Well - Jamestown California

Africa - Maji Mengi - Abundant Primary Water well, from Global Resource Alliance

What is Primary Water? Pal Pauer in Nevada City.  2 hour lecture on it

Youtube Channel with 25 video's on Primary Water


Pal Pauer -The Final Interview. Deborah Tavares covers his early years and intro to primary water
This is the final interview of the Hungarian Water Wizard Pal Pauer.  Apr 21, 2022  Deborah Tavares recaps Pal's early life and his commitment to providing primary water to many thirsty people around the globe.  Watch all 3 podcasts

The music is familiar... a non renewable resource that is so abundant that we can't ever possibly deplete in the whole history of humanity... somehow these miracle sources only last a few centuries, if lucky.

Sam Bush wrote:

All those questions are answered on the primary water website.  The Primary Water Institute is dedicated to teaching what is known about the volcanic origin of water

I'm afraid they're not answered. Even if (and I'd emphasise the 'if') it were true that primary water was an "unlimited" and "renewable" resource, the proprietary technologies for locating the best points for extracting it are not accessible to everyone - which practically makes primary water a restricted, if not limited, resource.

What will it cost my village of 500 inhabitants to replace their current spring-fed drinking water supply with a primary water source? (NB: the village self-financed and self-built the current water system in the 1980's - no proprietary technologies, no expensive consultants, no government, no NGO involvement - just straightforward plumbing know-how, and simple earthworks to aid aquifer recharge...)

And what will it cost me to explore & drill for primary water on my 2-acre plot, assuming that the location is even suitable at all for cost-effective extraction of primary water?

Sam Bush wrote:Those links you gave is for the ground water and not much deeper Primary Water

Indeed. They were only meant to illustrate a point, not directly related to primary water: namely, that extracting water (or any other resource that was originally scarce or not within easy reach) can lead to unintended and undesirable social and environmental consequences.

Regarding the "primary water" theories, I find that it's a similar story to the abiotic oil theories that I looked into years ago, with seemingly many of the same issues.

The notion that there's a "limitless" supply just ignores the fact that whatever the supply is, there's a finite amount at any given time and that it needs to be replenished by whatever processes at some rate. Even if that rate is "very fast", it still means that there is, in fact, a limit - and just like all critters, when left to our own devices with a huge pool of given resource, we will use up a huge amount of that resource quickly in an effort to improve our conditions.

Think chickens eating every last grasshopper in a new paddock before moving on to the still nutritious but not as tasty lambs quarters. Those grasshoppers are seemingly limitless and there's an ever growing supply just outside the paddock, but where the chickens are at the moment, they will use up "every drop" of the resource as quickly as possible, exceeding the capacity of the system to replenish itself. This is natural behavior in closed systems, and it's only the human (or natural predators) intervening, moving the chickens to fresh ground before it's "too late", that keeps the fresh paddock from becoming a brown wasteland of poop

Likewise, the notion that it's cheap or freely accessible ignores the fact that most people do not have the means to tap that resource themselves due to money, time and/or equipment restrictions. I cannot, for example, afford to go drilling into bedrock for water. Heck, I can't afford to pay my car insurance some years! I know even some nation-states, especially in the arid regions, are in a similar boat. When things are cost prohibitive, they're not practical.

Anyway, all that said, I'm anxiously watching the development of what appears to be an excellent, though potentially life threatening, teaching moment coming for southern california. There's a likelihood of heavy rains from a tropical system that would cause widespread and severe flooding. This happens every so often, including an event very similar to this happening in the 1960s, where what has been a hot and dry period quickly turns to cool and overly wet. I can't help but think of all the beavers and their network of dams helping to catch and mitigate the flood waters pre-1900s. They certainly don't have them now, and even what many of us in wetter climates would consider small amounts of rain will be enough to cause chaos. It's likely to be a good reminder that we should try to never hyper-focus on mitigating just one thing while neglecting the exact opposite extreme - we really are lucky to have so many tools in the permaculture toolchest that work holistically, mitigating numerous extremes while improving our condition during the normals

Stacy Witscher wrote:
Personally, on my land, I take a multi-faceted approach. Everything from rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, drip irrigation and hugelkultur. Ponds are generally not allowed  but I do have a few.

A multi-faceted approach is the right way to go. The old principle of redundancy, and of one function being performed by multiple elements.

We have two drylands urban homesteads averaging 8"/ 20cm, one sub-tropical (winter rains, no frost, 35" eT0) & one high desert (summer monsoon, 180-270 day growing season, 100" evaporation), and one temperate forestry homestead (year-round precipitation, 45").  Although 900-3000 miles/ 1400-4800 km apart across a continent, this year the first has been in extreme and the others have been in severe drought.  

At our primary residence, we have whole year/ whole site rainwater infiltration + catchment & storage of 12,000 gals/ 45,000 lits, which also takes as overflow extra both neighbours' roof runoff, but ran out before the end of last failed rainy season.  We had to go drought fallow (finish standing crops, no spring/ summer seeding, only keep perimeter perennials alive), plus for emergencies build out all gray-water system & for absences install conveyed-water drip system.  Droughts of one to five years have been common lately, though today (September) we're supposed to get the first real rain (edge of cyclone) since January.  

At our high desert place, over decades all rains runoff goes direct to growspace, and soaker hose system supplements year-round with conveyed-water every second or third week for seven years now.  We're 22 years into drought there, have lost only a few of many deep-rooted perennials when irrigation cycle was interrupted, seeded no annuals crops in recent years but can get the latter going very quickly upon return.  

Most worrying now is our 212 ac/ 87 ha forest operation, where I have for decades been promoting & demonstrating hardwoods regeneration forestry, climate contingency transition, & fire preparation, while deer pressure has long been selecting for pine & nobody else practices active management or keeps fire lanes open.  For the first time in my memory there was no rain during our August visit: grass dry, forest canopy crispy, hundreds of nursery container trees dead, our unexpectedly-successful recent stormado replantings starting to dry, irrigation is impractical except around plumbed buildings, fears are rising of wells going dry, regional/ local fires have increased, & another year like this will bring back wildfire after 130-year absence.  

My point: whatever we have managed to plan & prepare for however long, we must now & always be prepared for worse & worst to come, including having to leave our places seasonally or permanently.  

Patrik Schumann wrote:My point: whatever we have managed to plan & prepare for however long, we must now & always be prepared for worse & worst to come, including having to leave our places seasonally or permanently.  

This is a great suggestion.

No matter where someone lives,  "How do you drought-proof your permaculture project?"  will be different in each location. Though these properties all require lots of planning and preparation.

Plan, prepare, and implement.

Johan Malik wrote:The question is: once your Huegel bed has properly 'recharged', how long will the moisture last? What if drought lasts from, say, March to October, with very high (>35 C) Summer temperatures? And even while there still is some moisture, will it be available for the roots of young plants / seedlings? And given the slope of the mound - and hence the increased exposure to Sun on the southern / western side - will that moisture be enough to compensate for the more intense transpiration?
Regards: Exclusive careguides for plants

It depends very much on:
- External temperature.
- Average winds.
- Sun exposure.
- Cracks on the soil.
- Clay/sand ratio.
- Number and type of plants.

I can say my 'recharged' hugel-alike bed, without shading and without wind shelter, held its water six weeks into summer, then our plants dithered.
I hope to improve this with proper shading, if I can stablish it.

Johan Malik wrote:

The question is: once your Huegel bed has properly 'recharged', how long will the moisture last? What if drought lasts from, say, March to October, with very high (>35 C) Summer temperatures?

The original Huegel bed model originated in Northern Europe and has a track record of working there. Wheaton Labs has had good success with ones that start out 6/7 feet tall, but they're also usually quite long.
1. Surface area to volume in extreme heat and drought are a factor, and I can imagine the longer it is, the better it will work. I use Hugel beds - essentially wooden beds about 30" high with lots of punky wood in the bottom 18". They need to be watered during our summer drought, but the pumpkin patch only got watered with a slow sprinkle once every couple of weeks. Under the bed, is clay soil. My friend waters her veggies daily, if not twice a day in the same conditions.

2. I find that the worst sun in a drought, is actually the west sun - the late afternoon is when our temperature peaks, and the sun is in the west. This could affect both the orientation you put your Huegel bed in and what plants you put where - more heat loving and drought tolerant in the west exposure.

3. Height: People in reliably droughty, hot conditions have adapted this system to "buried" Huegel beds, rather than raised, and done well with it. The danger is that "wood floats", so if you put a lot of wood in the ground and then the hole it's in fills up with water, bad things can happen. I have a number of trees/shrubs that have wood buried around them and not ever had a problem, but I tend to only bury pieces 2 feet (60cm) long as a max.

4. Location: Yes, the top of the Huegel will dry out faster than the bottom, so the upper third may need more drought tolerant plants than the bottom third. In many places, people just broadcast a mixture of seeds over the mound and let the plants decide who lives and who dies. In extreme climates, I could see planting in patches with some consideration for plant preferences.

5. Temperature: The reality from what I've read and observed is that some plants cope with heat better than others, and the winners can be quite surprising. However, most plants close up their little stoma once the temperature climbs and try to wait it out. In extreme, multi-season, multi-year drought, things die - sometimes a *lot* of things die. Ecosystems that experience this regularly, often have key species that have seeds that can survive in the soils for years to decades. (Scotch broom seeds can apparently live for 60 years as an example.) I know people in the States who lost pretty much everything in their veggie gardens this year. They weren't using Huegel beds, but they were experienced gardeners who'd done what they could to improve their soil.

So to me, Hügelkultur is one tool in your tool-box. It, or its close cousins, can make your homestead more resilient. Good planning is also a useful tool, as are many water-conserving techniques. Wind-breaks, shade where needed, drought-tolerant varieties of plants are all things to consider.