Permaculture Landscape in Portugal - Water Is Life with Sepp Holzer and Tamera Community

[acoustic guitar music, trickling water]

[male, Austrian accent] Wasser ist Leben.
[male translator] Water is life.

Water is the most important thing.
The whole world is 70% water.

We, animals, everything.
70% water.

[female narrator] Water is the key issue for
the survival of humankind on this planet.

Nature has provided enough water
everywhere on earth,

but a billion people do not have
sufficient access to clean drinking water.

More and more regions lack the water
to grow the food they need.

Centralised systems of artificial water
management cannot solve this problem.

We need decentralised systems
of natural water management.

We are in Tamera, peace research
centre in southern Portugal,

where a water retention landscape has been
under development since summer 2007.

Bernd Muller is responsible for Tamera's
ecological research work.

2007 hatten wir in der Gemeinschaft
Tamera die Frage ...

[translator] In 2007, the community of
Tamera still had the question

whether a site of this size,
threatened by desertification,

could provide food, water and energy
for 300 people.

We visited Sepp Holzer and asked him this
question, and he brought us this gift:

the vision of a water landscape.

[narrator] Sepp Holzer,
an Austrian mountain farmer,

is a well-known specialist and visionary
for permaculture and landscape healing.

Water is always at the core of his work.

Wasser ist fur mich das grosste Kapital.

[translator] For me, water is
the most important capital.

Wherever it's possible, you should create
retention spaces and collect the rainwater,

and relearn with the water
how to maintain a balance.

This is the most important thing,

because once you've created the right hydro-
logical balance, 70% of the work is done.

You help rich vegetation to develop,
diversity,

because nature can reveal itself
and develop in the right way.

[birds, child's voice in distance]

[acoustic guitar music continues]

[speaking German]

[translator] Traveling through the world,
I've not seen a single situation,

nation, or land in which the development
of a water retention landscape

would not give the first important
healing impulses.

In many parts of the world, countries are
not able to feed their population any more.

They have been unable to maintain
their natural wildlife for a long time.

[narrator]
As a consultant in many countries,

Sepp Holzer sees the consequence of
deforestation, monoculture,

overgrazing, and industrial agriculture.

All these factors destroy the natural
water balance.

[speaking German]

[translator] The soil is drying out.
Water is being lost.

And the retention space, the natural
water storage system of the earth,

is becoming dry. Then the flora
and fauna disappear.

In the end the land will turn into desert,
or burn because it's so dry.

You can see these problems happening
all over the world,

bringing huge catastrophes.

[speaking German]

[translator] And the heavy rains come
anyway. What happens then?

The water rushes down the slopes because
the dry soil does not absorb the water.

When the soil is hotter than the falling
rain it rejects the water.

Only when the soil is cooler, when the
vegetation is giving shadow,

then it attracts the water
and lets it seep in.

[narrator] This is the construction site
for a new water retention space in Tamera.

Wherever you work with soil,
you can read the signs of erosion.

Topsoil should actually form a thick
living layer everywhere on the ground,

which enables rainwater to filter in.
But this layer has been eroded away.

Now the topsoil lies in layers many
metres thick in the bottom of valleys,

or is found as mud in rivers.
[sound of heavy machinery]

The surface of fields and sites higher up
is depleted and barren.

Decentralised water retention landscapes
give the rainwater time to filter back

into the earth body.

[speaking German]

[translator] People always have
the same questions.

Always the same worries: where will all
this water come from

in such dusty, dry soil without streams
or a river? How can I build a lake here?

[speaking German]

[translator]
People have simply lost the knowledge

of how to use the catchment area
and the rain.

The blessing of the water in the right way.
When I use the catchment area,

then a pond or lake will fill very quickly.

[music, rain, thunder]

[narrator] How much water can change
a landscape in a short time?

We can see here, comparing Tamera before
the creation of Lake 1, and today.

[speaking German]

[translator] Water retention
landscapes can be built everywhere.

Anywhere on earth.

[machinery]

[narrator] A water retention space must
not be sealed with concrete or plastic.

It is enough to build a dam out of natural
material at the narrowest point of a valley.

You dig a ditch until you reach
an impermeable layer.

On that solid ground you apply layer
after layer of fine material,

like moist clay, and drive on it and roll
it, to build the water barrier.

This water barrier is the core of the dam.

[translator] For the outside of the dam
I take coarse material.

It doesn't have to be dense and waterproof.

Of course, I will also have to compact it
by driving on it and rolling it,

and like this I build the whole dam.
The water barrier in the core,

and on the outside, in a slope of 1:2,
one metre up and two metres along,

like this I build the two layers together
up to the top.

[music]

[narrator] The water retention spaces
have winding banks,

shallow and deep zones, a diverse
vegetation of water plants,

and are built aligned to the
prevailing wind direction.

This way, the water is always moving.

It is enriched by oxygen,
and thus is naturally purified.

The water in a water retention landscape
stays fresh and alive by itself.

[speaking German]

[translator] Since we created
the first retention space,

we can already keep much of the water
from the winter rainfalls on the land.

In this way it can unfold its full
healing capacity.

The wildlife is responding and is returning
and the vegetation is recovering.

We can plant fruit trees again.
The forests recover,

and we can grow our food
for people and for animals

in the direct surroundings of the
first retention space.

[music]

The water which used to run away,
and which is now stored here,

is at the same time also having an impact
on the whole groundwater system.

[translator] In the first year,
a spring developed below this lake,

which now gives water throughout the year.

Since we built this first dam, we no
longer have such big variations

with a lot of flowing water in winter when
it's raining, and droughts in the summer.

We have a more constant water situation
throughout the year,

which is of course a huge
benefit for nature.

[music, birds chirping]

Nature shows you how this works.
You just have to ask her,

have to contact her,
to communicate with her.

Then you will be fine anywhere on earth.
Ask nature.

Think with her, and not against her.
Put yourself in her place,

and you get all the answers you need.

Make room in your head so that natural
thinking has space to happen.

[music]