by Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, © 2010
Number 3 in a series of Drops in a Bucket blog entries on Brad Lancaster’s and David Eisenberg’s U.S. State Department-sponsored adventures and gleanings in the Middle East
Al Absaa, Saudi Arabia, April 2009
At Al Absaa we toured irrigation projects within the largest oasis in Saudi Arabia. Over one million date [...]

or If You Pray for Rain – Harvest It
By Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, ©2010
Number 2 in a series of Drops in a Bucket blog entries on Brad Lancaster’s and David Eisenberg’s U.S. State Department-sponsored adventures and gleanings in the Middle East
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, April 2009
Most of the water people now drink in Saudi Arabia is [...]

or If You and Your Drink Sweat, Then Harvest Condensate
By Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com, ©2010
I am finally getting to the sharing of my travel gleanings. This is the first of a series to follow – so keep checking back. This piece is from my U.S. State Department-sponsored trip to Jordan and Saudi Arabia in 2009. David [...]

Many thanks to Craig Mackintosh for the permission to repost a portion of his blog entry, enhanced with his own beautiful photographs, describing some of his Middle-Eastern travel experiences and the West Bank’s first PDC, which Murad Alkhuffash, David Spicer, and I just finished teaching. Visit permaculture.org.au/2010/06/30/letters-from-the-west-bank-seeds-of-hope-scattered-from-the-west-banks-first-pdc to read Craig’s blog entry in its entirety.
Letters [...]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 www.HarvestingRainwater.com

Watergy is a term coined to describe the interconnection of water and energy. Every time we consume power we consume water. This is because water is used in the generation of our power – in Arizona this figure ranges from 0.001 to 56 gallons of water per kWh of power [...]

By Julia Fonseca
Whew, digging swales and basins is hard work!  Gutters and tanks are expensive.  And as the skimpy summer rains of 2009 demonstrated, how do you harvest rain when the rain refuses to fall?
Fortunately, there is a way to harvest water, even during droughts.  It costs nothing, and requires no expenditure of energy.  Can [...]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 www.HarvestingRainwater.com
Rainwater is known as “sweet water” throughout much of the world due to its pure “sweet” flavor when compared to brackish, alkaline, chemically-treated, or polluted ground and surface waters. Now it is also known as “beer water.” And folks, it is good – very good.
I sampled numerous pints of Golden Number [...]

By Brad Lancaster
© 2010 Drops in a Bucket Blog, www.HarvestingRainwater.com
When I was little I was terrified of death. I often cried myself to sleep as I thought of the end of life. It seemed so bleak, pointless, and severe.
Mom tried to comfort me with the concept of going to heaven. This did not reassure me [...]

© 2009 Brad Lancaster, www.HarvestingRainwater.com

Many garden hoses leach lead and other chemicals into the water as it sits in the hose. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brass fittings are often the culprits.
Yuck – the water tastes like lead!
To reduce such risk, purchase, use, and/or drink only from hoses labeled safe for drinking water. Never buy any [...]

How the harvest of urban nuisance runoff is reviving a community

Crushed rock or decomposed granite used excessively on landscapes grinds up mountains to spread them out in yards, but there are alternatives.

Recommendations from an Australian delegation touring U.S. cities to share their experiences with water efficiency as a result of prolonged drought

Harvesting street runoff to passively irrigate community orchards and support public celebrations

Check out, and apply for, up to $1,200 in these tax credits for water harvesting systems

A simple retrofit of a parking lot enabling it to harvest water and grow food-producing shade trees.

How runoff from apartment roofs, a parking lot, and a city street irrigated a bountiful 1-acre city farm

An introduction