Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

Seasoned permaculture veteran Chris Evans provides a comprehensive report of his
extensive experience designing and implementing village-scale water catchment systems
in Nepal. The connections between catching, storing, and efficiently using the precious
resource of water in the production of local self-reliant food systems is made vivid. Also
vivid is the whole systems permaculture thinking that went into the designs. Chris’ report
provides optimistic testimony that villagers the world over have the techniques to restore
and revitalize their degraded landscapes; what is required is more widespread application
of educational programs like the EDE to bring this knowledge to where it is needed.
Village-Scale Water Catchments
in Nepal
Chris Evans – Designed Visions, Wales
Background
The hills and mountains of Nepal contain thousands
of very distinct watershed areas that are characterized
by steep slopes between both smooth and rugged high
ridges, and valley bottoms with alluvial plains of varying
width depending on their height in the watershed. Soil
on the relatively young Himalayan slopes is extremely
susceptible to erosion, especially during the monsoon,
and nutrients are typically easily leached. The valley
bottoms act as a natural conduit for this leached fertility
leading to productive flat land where crop productivity
is generally high. Meanwhile, on the slopes there is a
constant struggle for farmers to hold on to valuable
fertility, and labor inputs are high in attempts to replace
lost nutrients. This is mainly done through animal
manure produced after trees have been cut for fodder
which is carried often long distances from ever denuding
forests and fed to livestock such as cows and buffalo,
together with leaf litter used as bedding. The resultant
compost is then carried to the fields.
The problems of erosion of young soil on steep slopes
are exacerbated by the monsoon, when 80% to 90% of
the country’s rainfall (annual average 1,600mm) falls in
just four months between June and September. There is
usually a small amount of rain in winter that falls as
Run off from a well-forested watershed on the
left entering a river from an eroded watershed
on the right.
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