Water is such a major thing. During the last years of living on the land here at Kotare Village, we had 2 main lines carrying water for us around the property, one line with drinking water (drinking, cooking, showers, laundry) the water comes from a spring on the hill block, or from the Mangaone stream, runs into a concrete tank and then spread via electric pump to the sections. The second is the irrigation line, the water is collected in a dam on the hill block (this is just several cm above the height of the gutters of the main Koanga house) this allows us to gravity feed the water into a concrete tank and pump it to all the gardens on the property via electric pump.

This system is a temporary one, and being dependent on electricity for pressure water supply is not where we aim to be, and finally we have the resources to start putting in place the design we have in mind.

Last week we had a bulldozer here to enlarge the existing dam and dig some diversion drains to it.

From approx. 500m3 the dam is now 2500m3, which is a lot of water for us, and by adding the diversion drains the catchment is approx. 3 times bigger. We had to wait for a bit of dry in order to dig, and now, after the dam is ready we wait for the rain 🙂

The next piece of the puzzle we aim to implement in mid summer, it’s going to be a big dam very high up on the hill block, there are several points there that are perfect dam sites, and will be able to catch and store for us more water than the village will ever be able to use within a season, and at height that will mean high pressure water right into everyone’s hoses with no pumps in between.

What could be more reassuring than gravity fed, high pressure water at the nozzle of my garden hose?!!

Will keep you informed.

Shaked