Water is Life#

Water is, after air, the primary need for life. Permaculture design sensibility suggests, therefore, that the supply of water be supported by as many design elements as possible.

For a start, we (deliberately) chose to live in an area where rainfall is relatively plentiful, though in a world of Climate Change, nobody should be too certain. It was one of the most important criteria in deciding where to live when we planned The Escape From Suburbia.

There are two pieces to the water-supply puzzle: Household supply for the main house and cottage, and infrastructure for supplying irrigation water for vegetable garden, animals and crops.

Then there are questions to be answered around the "disposal" of "waste" water - or rather the cleaning and purification of water we have polluted through use, and its return to the watershed in a form fit for life. Waste water treatment also has two elements: grey water from showers, baths and the kitchen and clothes-washer, and black water - water we have fouled by shitting into it.