Rainwater swale, water weirs and culvert cistern – Desert Permaculture


“Update to my rainwater fruit tree project where I use some permaculture techniques to water my fruit trees. Hopefully you might be able to incorporate something similar on your own home, homestead or urban farm! Thanks for watching:)”

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CoRe Solutions Ferro-cement rain tank construction in Indonesia


“Indonesia has some of the most contaminated rivers and groundwater sources in the world. Yet much of the country receives more than 200cm of annual rainfall that goes virtually unused. CoRe Solutions has perfected a locally appropriate method for constructing high quality Ferro-cement rainwater harvesting tanks that are empowering Indonesia’s people to tap into this sustainable clean water source.”

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Earthbag Water Tank Instructable

Earthbag water tank drawing and instructable
Earthbag water tank drawing and instructable

Check out my new how-to article at Instructables.com on building earthbag water tanks. I pulled together content from previous blog posts, added a drawing and edited everything into one concise article. Let me know what you think. Instructables.com is a major site that’s been very effective in promoting my natural building projects.

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Concrete Water Tanks Versus Earthbag Water Tanks

I wrote in a previous blog post how I’m loving earthbag water tanks. My fascination with these water tanks jumped up a notch after reading an article about the difficulties of building a concrete water tank. From what I’ve recently learned by visiting Vanuatu and assisting in water tank design and construction, I know earthbag water tanks are much faster, easier and lower cost to build than concrete tanks.

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Ferrocement Ground Tank

Cylindrical ground tank made of ferrocement
Cylindrical ground tank made of ferrocement

What’s the best, most efficient way to build water tanks? That question has been burning in my mind since seeing the extent of water shortages firsthand on my recent trip to Vanuatu. While looking and thinking about possible solutions, I’ve found numerous good ideas on the Internet such as this underground ferrocement tank made with mortar and chicken wire. This wouldn’t work in Vanuatu and on many other islands due to the rocky soil; however, it will work in many other areas. I love the simplicity of this method.

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Earthbag Water Tank, Mele Village, Vanuatu

Large earthbag water tank at Farea Assembly Presbyterian Church in Mele Village, Vanuatu.
Large earthbag water tank at Farea Assembly Presbyterian Church in Mele Village, Vanuatu.

We were pleasantly surprised to see this earthbag water tank just down the road from a house we (Liz’s group) were building. The church group saw our project and on their own figured out how to use the same earthbag techniques to make their water tank. No plans, no technical assistance, nothing.

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