ANCESTRAL WATER NURTURING TECHNOLOGIES: AN ADAPTATION STRATEGY FOR CLIMATE-CHANGE RELATED WATER SCARCITY

Kashyapa A. S. Yapa
Riobamba, Ecuador

Water shortages will not be rare under current Climate Change since the steadily rising temperatures will make every living being consume more water, and lakes and soil evaporate more water. Accelerated denudation of forest cover has reduced the infiltration of rainfall, and thus groundwater recharge, to a minimum. Todays alarming levels of headwaters contamination means we are left with less and less consumable water. Why do we talk about nurturing water? We can survive a long period without eating, but not without water. Really, it is mother water (yaku mama Cachiguango and Ponton, 2010) that nurtures us. So, in droughts, why dont we try to nurture her, as a matter of mutual respect? Our ancestors depended directly on the nature for their water supply, much more than we do today, and had a more revered view of it. They integrated water nurturing activities to their community living without waiting for external help: employed mainly local materials; and in executing them, used their individual and collective, mental and physical resources. Similarly, lets deal with this climate crisis on our own, as everybody is affected; nobody for rescue. Thats why we propose ancient water nurturing practices as the best tool to prepare for coming water shortages. Not that every practice worked every time or everywhere. We have inherited those that suit each region best. They include techniques for forecasting the climate, procuring water in droughts, rainwater harvesting, tapping into groundwater, conserving and consuming water, and dealing with excess rainwater. How did our ancestors predict the weather? Scientists today have a difficult time in accurately forecasting weather, for lack of precise historic and continuous climate data. However, some village elders have the ability to fairly correctly predict when and how much rain would fall in their locality. Such knowledge they developed carefully observing the environment around them: celestial bodies, meteorological events, animals and plants. They would observe certain events and objects on particular dates.

Based on past experiences, they make tentative predictions checking for conflicting indicators, and confirm the predictions only after observing similar events on other corresponding dates. Such predictions, whether based on changing rock colors in Walawe river (Uragoda 2000) o on St. Johns day meteorological events around Lake Titicaca-Per (Chuyma Aru 2007), always depend on past weather patterns. Changing climate may make
Suns halo indicates freezing days (Marco Martinez, Ecuador)

them also error-prone. Thus, we should first learn why and how such indicators and the local climate were related, and create a

new knowledge-base connecting current weather patterns to those indicators. What options we have if the rains get delayed? Our ancestors communicated with the nature through rituals: to show appreciation, requesting help or in protest. Drought-easing rituals would use: loud appeals by children (Cachiguango and Ponton 2010) or by animals (especially frogs); symbolic objects (feathers wind, turquoise water, etc.); and sacrifices o payments. In India, rain-calling frog marriages are held even today, while in Indonesia volunteer rattan cane fighters bear the pain for rain. Such acts would bring results only when conducted in good faith, in order to harmonize community living with the nature, not when enacted in isolation begging for a particular benefit. Ancient Andean Pacific coast dwellers depended on thick humid fog during the dry season and captured its water using dense tree barriers on top of coastal ridges. Vaporizing water in a closed environment and condensing it we can capture pure water, albeit in small quantities, to survive an emergency. Ancient societies manipulated clouds to convert hail into rain: Europeans fired cannons at sky; in Andean high plains black smoke is sent up, even today. Now, some try to force rain through cloud-seeding, using rockets or airplanes, but its cost-effectiveness is doubtful and socio-environmental consequences are very serious (Morrison 2009). Rainwater and runoff harvesting Efficiently capturing and storing rainwater requires no advanced technologies, but advanced planning. Ancient cities collected rainwater in individual homes and in public plazas to avoid costly and attack-prone external water supply systems. Modern city dwellers too should use rainwater for roof or floor gardens and reduce municipal water consumption. Some cities (e.g. Portland-Oregon) offer incentives to citizens for reducing runoff entering their sewage systems.

The surface runoff can be intercepted by contour canals and directed towards storage reservoirs. Yet, storing runoff in the field soil itself, as practiced by Hopi and Zuni agriculturists in southwestern US, using long contour lines of rocks or branches, reduces the erosion as well. In steeper slopes, the soil-water traps are strengthened by terracing, trenching o check damming.

Bhu wewa sluice intake and inside the sluice well - Polonnaruwa

Ancient cascading tanks Mau Ara

Storing stream runoff in large surface reservoirs requires advanced technical knowledge. To control water release under several meters of head pressure, ancient Sri Lankans used a sluicewell of wedged stone blocks that probably had a plug- door to control the outflow. Yet, they generally opted for user simplicity, by building many cascading small reservoirs. Subterranean water Past Ecuadoreans in Santa Elena captured rainwater in thousands of small tanks at the head of micro catchments overlying a porous rock formation, recharging the springs downstream to survive long dry spells. Ancient qanats of Middle East (Goldsmith and Hildyard 1984) and filtration
Filtration gallery cleaning well - Nazca

galleries of Nazca-Per brought out to the surface under

gravity large aquifer discharges. The famous Nazca lines seem to follow geological faults and hence indicate possible groundwater sources in that extremely arid location (Proulx 2008?). The Inca engineers of Cuzco-Peru had built bench-terrace walls between impermeable rocky ridges, delineating generally dry streams, to trap behind them shallow groundwater and filtered out steady flows for bathing or irrigation (Fairley 2003). Today, dry NE Brazil uses submerged curtain walls across intermittent streams, economically trapping and storing water underground (UNEP 1997). To extract this water and maintain the system properly, a filtration gallery can be incorporated just upstream of the curtain wall.

Instead of pumping out groundwater for irrigation, some ancient farmers simply lowered the cultivation floor! Those sunken-gardens along the desert Peruvian coast have been continuously cultivated (Schjellerup 2009), at least since the Chimu kingdom (1300 AD), when they flourished under
Sunken gardens Trujillo, Peru

constant irrigation of the land upslope.

Making the best use of captured water First, reduce consumption and eliminate water losses. Low volume WCs, urinals for men and dry-toilets reduce water consumption without sacrificing modern-day comforts. Tubes and surface-linings can cut water losses in conduction and storage, but preventing distribution losses, especially in irrigation, needs to consider many variables involved: types of seeds, cultivation time, soil, climate and irrigation mechanism. In SE Turkey, farming saffron instead of cotton, 90% of water requirement was cut down while keeping the incomes intact (Drynet 2008?). Mulching, wind breakers and organic enrichment of soil, etc., will help reduce the loss of soil humidity and thus the need for frequent irrigation. In urban homes, grey water can be reused if water is not contaminated unnecessarily. In semiurban and rural areas, decontaminating and reusing septic tank water may become cheaper in the long run. In farm houses, biogas production using stable-wash discharge would accelerate the composting process of its solids and facilitate decontaminating the liquid component. Coping with too much rain? As we try to capture every drop of water to beat a drought, a flashflood could destroy it all. Our reliance on land-access makes us very vulnerable to floods, especially in low-lying areas, where our forefathers, in contrast, had developed aquatic civilizations to live in harmony with water. Huge floodplains of Colombia (Momposina), Ecuador (Lower Guayas) and Bolivia (Mojos) were heavily populated and more prosperous then, than now (Denevan 2001). They dug wide canals raising the fields in-between. The canals diverted high river flows to low-lying swamps reducing flood risks, and permitted unhindered canoe travel. This also facilitated capturing nutrient-rich sediments for raised field cultivation and fish farming in the swamps.

Aerial view: Momposina canals and raised fields (Courtesy: Banco de la Republica, Colombia)

Kalinga Ela Polonnaruwa: An ancient Mahaweli river flood control and navigation attempt?

Modern flood protection schemes, in contrast, uproot entire villages, destroy the aquatic life, bring about health hazards, deprive nutrients to the fields, and more often than not, cause worse floods on protected properties, when their structures cant cope with high flows. Most such projects fail since the designers, lacking reliable rainfall, flow or sediment data, invent numbers to support politicians promises. Apart from such lack of data, and also of proper monitoring and maintenance, their false nature-conquering premise is sufficient to bring them down. Rain related soil erosion can be minimized through contour terracing, trenching and checkdamming. To stabilize earth slides, we should provide flexible groundwater drainage paths through the moving mass, plant deep-rooting and rapidly growing trees, and then, take measures to reduce surface erosion. If water-logging of cultivating fields is a threat, prioritize raising the plant beds, instead of sinking them to capture more humidity in droughts, as the former occurs too rapidly and causes more damage. Adapting to the changing climate The changing climate challenges us to be self-sufficient, inquisitive and practical field researchers. Leave aside your titles, but previous field training would come real handy in this endeavor. Dealing with water scarcity (or excess of it) is just one, but the most important, aspect of this challenging landscape. When you confront a problem, keep your mind open to whatever crazy solution that props up (we hope this paper helps germinate more of those) and dont discard it till you test it by trial and error. Such an attitude would be the best homage we can pay to the finest field engineers ever our forefathers.
References:

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