Water restoration and
catchment management
Planting water, growing communities
“Water is the essences of all life – without water we have no resilience”
The idea of planting water originated in Zimbabwe by a rain farmer, Zephaniah Phiri Maseko, as an effective way to replenish water-sources in dry-land environments. Permatil has successfully adapted this idea and proven the benefits that come from innovative and effective watershed management practices in tropical environments, such as in Timor-Leste.
Why plant water?
Water security and water catchment management are two of our most pressing global issues and this will only increase with the impacts of climate change. The flow-on effects for food security, economic stability, health, wellbeing and the environment cannot be understated.
With poor land and water management comes instability. Leading to increased run off and top-soil erosion, increased drought and natural disaster impacts such as flooding and land slides, natural spring reduction, reduced crop-yields and negative impacts on livelihoods, food insecurity and malnutrition.
With good land and water management, rain water is spread and stored in the ground, aquifers are replenished, natural springs are restored, small reservoirs provide water for animals, trees and agriculture, precious topsoil is protected, crop yields are more consistent and drought impacts are reduced. Water catchment systems exponentially expand the land mass benefiting from rainfall, while reducing and slowing the rainfall that enters river systems – reducing and preventing flooding and land-slides. This enhances environmental restoration of fragile and damaged ecosystems and provides better protection for estuaries and coastal ocean eco-systems.
On-the-ground solutions leading to global impact
Through Permatil’s work in Timor-Leste, thousands of communities are benefiting from water restoration, with the number growing every month. Positive impacts are being seen from the restoration sites, from mountainous inland regions, right through the river systems to coastal towns, estuaries and beyond to the reefs and oceans.
Over 700 water springs that have been dry for many years are flowing again, floods and landslides have been prevented, tens of thousands of appropriate ecological tree species have been planted and ecosystems are showing signs of self-recovery after only one or two years.
These restoration projects bring indigenous knowledge together with permaculture strategies and techniques to create unique localised solutions for each site. A focus on youth training and leadership is providing rural livelihood opportunities for young people, equipping the next generation with skills, knowledge and the ability to understand the broader issues to spread solutions beyond their communities.
Importantly the projects coincide with stopping land burning on project sites and protection from over-grazing. The combined positive impacts are leading to natural ecosystem recovery, which then feeds back into even more water being caught and returned into the sub-ground aquifers.
