| More
Information |
|
|
| Name |
Pietro Laureano |
|
|
| Address |
Laureano, P. (2001). The Water Atlas: Traditional Knowledge to combat desertification. Bologna: Laia Libros. |
|
|
| Category |
BOOK REVIEW |
|
|
| Title |
The Water Atlas - Traditional knowledge to combat desertification |
|
|
| Details |
Pietro Laureano, trained in Architecture and Town Planning, has studied traditional water systems around the world. He founded the IPOGEA Research Centre on Local and Traditional Knowledge.1 The Water Atlas, 2001 is a collection of ancient practices developed by local communities for conserving and using water. The book records the struggle of communities around the world to thrive under adverse weather condition. Laureano laments that the current culture demands immediate visible results with often unsustainable impacts. Traditional knowledge applications, in contrast, are often slow. Its impacts may be seen over very long durations of time. He observes that traditional solutions have led to systems that are “autopoietic” (self-replicating) and “self-propulsive” (p. 26) without the need for any exogenous factors. Traditional integrated and multifunctional solutions have been historically characterised by aesthetic values, ethical values, principles of spirituality, and social taboos. Maze-like water structures observed in cave paintings of hunter-gatherers are recalled in the second chapter. Many of early hunter-gatherers developed mechanisms for food storage, control of river flow, domestication of plants and animals and use of animal remains as fertilizers. Women were critical to this framework. Women along with children discovered fruits, roots, seeds and edible larvae. They were also the principal bearers and conveyors of knowledge.
The fifth chapter on oases of Sahara describes several ways in which the residents tried to maximise the efficiency of water use. The kesrias of the Algerian Sahara give an insight into the traditional water allocation systems which helped survival in the desert. The water quotas kept changing based on inheritance, marriages and sales of possessions. Since, family ties and inheritance were directly reflected on the kesrias, the complete system, along with junctions and little bridges, is a physical record of family ties and possessions. The importance of water in that culture can also be seen today in the jewel which Amazigh women wear around their neck. This jewel is a stylised representation of the water distribution system.
Laureano draws upon many examples of frugality of the Saharan population. Among these, the adobe fences that line the Saharan fields stand out. These semispherical earthen bricks are still being used in perimeter walls for cropping areas. The adobe clay bricks are moulded in a wicker basket and dried in the sun. They are then placed in an arrangement that resembles the shape of the bone of a herring. The holes in the wall provide protection against the wind. Completely closed barriers could deposit heaps of eroded material brought by the winds onto the fields. This setting works like a windbreak, letting only some wind pass, and thus reducing the intensity of the wind. In the night, when the wind blows against the rounded sides of the plano-convex bricks, the humidity from the wind is absorbed into the bricks. The convex shape provides a greater surface area. In the day, the hot wind passing from these interstitial regions evaporate the moisture present and take it onto the fields, thereby providing the fields with extra moisture and also cooling the area.
Another intriguing case from the Sahara is the Ghardaia town in the M’zab valley of Algeria. Ghardaia is a good example of how microclimate control could be achieved with structures that are organic and aim to blend in with their natural surroundings. This town was formed when the Ibadite community settled around a completely barren stony terrain. The Ibadite town planning and ecosystem management turned this seemingly inhabitable “pentapolis” into a green valley that is still thriving. They laid down several rules to ensure that their aesthetic, communal and ecological values were perpetuated over the years. In Ghardaia, whitewashed stone houses are clustered in narrow concentric circles along the five hills. Every house has its own courtyard and clusters of terraces, yards and lanes have been carved out along the slope in a way that blends the city into its geomorphologic background. An interesting rule followed by the early Ghardaian inhabitants was that there must be a mosque atop every hillock that should be able to hold the entire population of the hillock. This ensured that every time the mosque capacity exceeded, a new mosque, and consequently a new town, was to be created. This kept a constant control over the size of the town.
How geomorphologically adept were the early inhabitants of the pentapolis can be guessed from the dam of Beni Isguen. This dam was not built for holding surface water but for retaining sub-surface water. Subsoil flows were studied and dammed strategically. A well was built upstream from the dam from where this underground water could be extracted.
They also had a deep understanding of fluvial patterns. They had observed that the Wadi M’zab flooded about every 10 years. The valley was organised keeping in mind this event. Intercepts were built to capture flood water flow and distribute it to the tilled fields. Walled torrent streets were made within the city along its gardens to allow the passing of the storm water. Small openings in these streets relayed water to the gardens which was further distributed using channels, bridges and basins. Such water network can still be found in Wadi Dhahr near San’a in Yemen.
The book also highlights examples of separation of solid and liquid excrement, citywide water harvesting systems, traditional urban ecosystem and microclimate management techniques used by various civilisations.
This Water Atlas can be useful to any student of water conservation, a challenge becoming tougher every day given our profligate ways of using scarce natural resources.
____________
1http://ec.europa.eu/research/water-initiative/laureano_pietro_en.html |
|
|
| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 23(2) 20-21, 2012 |
