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Book Reviews
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Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands
Volume 1: Guiding Priniciples to Welcome Rain
into Your Life and Landscape
by Brad Lancaster
(Rainsource Press, 2006, $24.95)
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Where our fresh water comes from and where it goes after we have had our way with it are extremely vital issues for our time, and no more so than in drylands. We live in a semi-arid landscape with much of the water that quenches our thirst and nourishes the food on our tables “borrowed” from places geographically remote from us at great cost financially and environmentally. Wouldn’t it be great if we could harvest all the fresh water we needed, one home and lot at a time, without piping it in, blasting it with chemicals and ultimately flushing much of it down the toilet with our waste? We can, and Brad Lancaster is just the person to tell us how.
In the first of three planned volumes, Lancaster dazzles with a depth of knowledge, information both practical and anecdotal, and writing that makes Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands an accessible and compelling read, applicable to home and community. Even for those with some experience in rainwater harvesting, it may be hard to imagine three volumes on the subject, but at the hands of this veteran protector of precipitation, the topic is that rich, detailed and complex, and I look forward to the next two books.
Lancaster is a consummate permaculturist. He cycles themes and ideas throughout the book, reinforcing key concepts from different viewpoints, with examples and humor, making his points sink in like rainwater into healthy soil. Refreshingly, the author focuses on solutions, balancing problems or challenges such as “The Wasteful Path to Scarcity” with “The Stewardship Path to Abundance.” He also achieves prudent balance when he gives frequent tips on water conservation as well as collection, storage and use. I appreciate his light approach, building permaculture principles into the structure and design of his message and delivery without beating the reader over the head that “this is doing permaculture.”
Lancaster outlines how to assess a site’s water. From small suburban home to sprawling rural spread, he asserts that everyone can harvest and use water. He makes clear that average home and landscape water use in the US is out of control and that in order to achieve the “Stewardship Path to Abundance,” water use limits are necessary. Not surprisingly, he gives examples of living within a drylands water budget without resorting to monthly bathing and cactus gardens. He discusses in fascinating detail many strategies and techniques for harvesting and storing water in tanks and earthworks for multiple uses.
Throughout the book, the author stresses the necessity of integrated design for maximum efficiency and yield. It’s just not possible to talk about efficient water harvesting and use without discussing its relationship with soil building, passive solar home design, climate and micro-climate, relative location, and other design issues and elements. Lancaster makes a beautifully explicit case for this in word and example.
The book is generously illustrated, with scarcely a page that does not have a clever and detailed drawing, photo, chart, quote, or graph packed with juicy and useful information. The material helps to demystify rainwater harvesting, answering questions such as “Doesn’t harvesting rainwater deplete the resources downstream?,” “Doesn’t rainwater storage breed mosquitoes?” and other common concerns. Much of it presents facts about water and how we use it, both historically and currently, backed by documentation. More than a third of the book’s 183 pages are devoted to appendices and glossary brimming with equations, charts, references, drawings, schematics and other resources that make the reader feel equipped and supported to go out and do it.
Scott Horton is Editor of the Permaculture Activist, the oldest periodical on the subject. He lives in the San Jacinto Mountains of Southern California and can be contacted at lasemillsbesada@hotmail.com.
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