On ground Planning for Swale

Sitting comfortably on the ground under the shade with Subbu, Mayandi and Kandan, i was able to draw a swale on the floor out of sand. This was when I visited the farm last week.  I created a small mound in the shape of long crest with bare hands from the sand and explained how it can be useful to contain runoff water and store it underground. Every drop of rain water is important and that need to be stored somewhere. Present practice of storing them in open ponds will dry them soon. Weather is very hot here for 9 months in a year. But storing underground will lock it for longer use.  Earlier I had read Bill Mollison and watched Geoff Lawton videos just to get some ideas. Recently i discovered John Kitsteiner



Run off water taken away nutrients

Subbu was immediatly able to relate to his 'borewell' experience.  While boring, we hit rock immediatly in 20 feet. From then onwards it was only rock for 160 feet. That means mud is available for only 20 feet. If I create a swale and stagnate water, the water will go down upto rock bed and then have nowhere else to go, but climb up slowly. Rather it will spread out underground. That will be useful for all plants and trees during summer.

My land is at the tip of an already created pond Nachankulam (by Government). Ideally water flow from across the land will pass through my land, which has also removed the top soil and nutrients. The entry point of water is as shown in the picture with white arrows. Water gets logged on the spot marked with Yellow arrow. If I cut a swale close to the fence inside, i must be able to harvest water and benefit from it.

water enters as in white arrow and stagnates as in yellow arrow.

"Will water works department object to the swale?", asked one.  "No, that is only in another farm where the water pass from one lake to another. This is only rain water and there is no official water path here", replied another.

I said cutting a swale is an art (impressed by D V Sridharan's experience). Therefore it has to be done carefully and slowly. "Dont worry sir, we have understood. Our JCB persons are skillful" came the reply. Another said, "We will enable JCB for channel cutting and employ manual labour for dressing"..

Swale as it should be. Courtesy : John Kitsteiner

Thus my job was over. I only need to arrange funds. I expect a swale cutting would require 2 days of work. That means Rs. 600 x 5 Hours x 2 Days = Rs. 6000/- Plus 1000 Bata for Driver for two days and food.  5 Nos of manpower Labour would be required at Rs. 300 each for two days costing 3000/-.  The total would be thus around 10000/-.

That should protect my crops and recharge my land for posterity !. And contribute to ground water recharge and make me move towards permaculture.