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[acoustic guitar music, trickling water]
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[male, Austrian accent] Wasser ist Leben.
[male translator] Water is life.
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Water is the most important thing.
The whole world is 70% water.
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We, animals, everything.
70% water.
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[female narrator] Water is the key issue for
the survival of humankind on this planet.
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Nature has provided enough water
everywhere on earth,
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but a billion people do not have
sufficient access to clean drinking water.
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More and more regions lack the water
to grow the food they need.
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Centralised systems of artificial water
management cannot solve this problem.
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We need decentralised systems
of natural water management.
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We are in Tamera, peace research
centre in southern Portugal,
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where a water retention landscape has been
under development since summer 2007.
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Bernd Muller is responsible for Tamera's
ecological research work.
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2007 hatten wir in der Gemeinschaft
Tamera die Frage ...
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[translator] In 2007, the community of
Tamera still had the question
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whether a site of this size,
threatened by desertification,
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could provide food, water and energy
for 300 people.
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We visited Sepp Holzer and asked him this
question, and he brought us this gift:
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the vision of a water landscape.
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[narrator] Sepp Holzer,
an Austrian mountain farmer,
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is a well-known specialist and visionary
for permaculture and landscape healing.
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Water is always at the core of his work.
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Wasser ist fur mich das grosste Kapital.
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[translator] For me, water is
the most important capital.
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Wherever it's possible, you should create
retention spaces and collect the rainwater,
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and relearn with the water
how to maintain a balance.
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This is the most important thing,
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because once you've created the right hydro-
logical balance, 70% of the work is done.
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You help rich vegetation to develop,
diversity,
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because nature can reveal itself
and develop in the right way.
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[birds, child's voice in distance]
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[acoustic guitar music continues]
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[speaking German]
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[translator] Traveling through the world,
I've not seen a single situation,
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nation, or land in which the development
of a water retention landscape
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would not give the first important
healing impulses.
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In many parts of the world, countries are
not able to feed their population any more.
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They have been unable to maintain
their natural wildlife for a long time.
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[narrator]
As a consultant in many countries,
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Sepp Holzer sees the consequence of
deforestation, monoculture,
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overgrazing, and industrial agriculture.
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All these factors destroy the natural
water balance.
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[speaking German]
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[translator] The soil is drying out.
Water is being lost.
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And the retention space, the natural
water storage system of the earth,
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is becoming dry. Then the flora
and fauna disappear.
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In the end the land will turn into desert,
or burn because it's so dry.
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You can see these problems happening
all over the world,
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bringing huge catastrophes.
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[speaking German]
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[translator] And the heavy rains come
anyway. What happens then?
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The water rushes down the slopes because
the dry soil does not absorb the water.
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When the soil is hotter than the falling
rain it rejects the water.
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Only when the soil is cooler, when the
vegetation is giving shadow,
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then it attracts the water
and lets it seep in.
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[narrator] This is the construction site
for a new water retention space in Tamera.
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Wherever you work with soil,
you can read the signs of erosion.
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Topsoil should actually form a thick
living layer everywhere on the ground,
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which enables rainwater to filter in.
But this layer has been eroded away.
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Now the topsoil lies in layers many
metres thick in the bottom of valleys,
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or is found as mud in rivers.
[sound of heavy machinery]
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The surface of fields and sites higher up
is depleted and barren.
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Decentralised water retention landscapes
give the rainwater time to filter back
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into the earth body.
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[speaking German]
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[translator] People always have
the same questions.
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Always the same worries: where will all
this water come from
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in such dusty, dry soil without streams
or a river? How can I build a lake here?
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[speaking German]
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[translator]
People have simply lost the knowledge
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of how to use the catchment area
and the rain.
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The blessing of the water in the right way.
When I use the catchment area,
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then a pond or lake will fill very quickly.
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[music, rain, thunder]
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[narrator] How much water can change
a landscape in a short time?
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We can see here, comparing Tamera before
the creation of Lake 1, and today.
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[speaking German]
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[translator] Water retention
landscapes can be built everywhere.
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Anywhere on earth.
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[machinery]
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[narrator] A water retention space must
not be sealed with concrete or plastic.
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It is enough to build a dam out of natural
material at the narrowest point of a valley.
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You dig a ditch until you reach
an impermeable layer.
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On that solid ground you apply layer
after layer of fine material,
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like moist clay, and drive on it and roll
it, to build the water barrier.
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This water barrier is the core of the dam.
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[translator] For the outside of the dam
I take coarse material.
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It doesn't have to be dense and waterproof.
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Of course, I will also have to compact it
by driving on it and rolling it,
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and like this I build the whole dam.
The water barrier in the core,
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and on the outside, in a slope of 1:2,
one metre up and two metres along,
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like this I build the two layers together
up to the top.
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[music]
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[narrator] The water retention spaces
have winding banks,
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shallow and deep zones, a diverse
vegetation of water plants,
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and are built aligned to the
prevailing wind direction.
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This way, the water is always moving.
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It is enriched by oxygen,
and thus is naturally purified.
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The water in a water retention landscape
stays fresh and alive by itself.
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[speaking German]
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[translator] Since we created
the first retention space,
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we can already keep much of the water
from the winter rainfalls on the land.
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In this way it can unfold its full
healing capacity.
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The wildlife is responding and is returning
and the vegetation is recovering.
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We can plant fruit trees again.
The forests recover,
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and we can grow our food
for people and for animals
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in the direct surroundings of the
first retention space.
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[music]
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The water which used to run away,
and which is now stored here,
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is at the same time also having an impact
on the whole groundwater system.
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[translator] In the first year,
a spring developed below this lake,
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which now gives water throughout the year.
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Since we built this first dam, we no
longer have such big variations
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with a lot of flowing water in winter when
it's raining, and droughts in the summer.
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We have a more constant water situation
throughout the year,
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which is of course a huge
benefit for nature.
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[music, birds chirping]
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Nature shows you how this works.
You just have to ask her,
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have to contact her,
to communicate with her.
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Then you will be fine anywhere on earth.
Ask nature.
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Think with her, and not against her.
Put yourself in her place,
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and you get all the answers you need.
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Make room in your head so that natural
thinking has space to happen.
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[music]