Water and Oceans Commons

What we know

When water is slowed and held in the landscape, it can come back. Creeks keep flowing in dry times, groundwater returns and dried-up streams run again.^1,3,5

Plants and water work together. Replanting slopes and worn-out land goes hand in hand with less soil washing away and more water staying in place.^2,5

What works

Simple structures built by hand do much of the work. Terraces, small dams, check dams, swales and living leaky weirs slow and spread water so it soaks in.^1,2,3,4

Letting land rest and regrow helps too. Closing worn-out hillsides to grazing and replanting the slopes gives vegetation a chance to return.^2,3,5

Where it's been done

Along Mulloon Creek in New South Wales, neighbours started with 3 km of eroded creek in 2006 and now slow and spread water across a 23,000 hectare catchment. The creek keeps flowing in dry times.¹

On China's Loess Plateau, farming families cut the soil washing into the Yellow River by more than 100 million tonnes a year, as vegetation cover doubled from 17 to 34 percent. In Tigray, Ethiopia, groundwater came back and irrigated land grew from about 40 hectares in the mid-1990s to almost 40,000.^2,3

Near Mecca, where about 70 mm of rain falls a year, a Bedouin community and permaculture designers caught every flood at Al Baydha. Their trees kept growing after the irrigation was turned off.⁴

In Minas Gerais, Brazil, Instituto Terra replanted 608 hectares of Atlantic Forest on a worn-out cattle farm, and reports that several dried-up streams came back to life.⁵

Open questions

So far this knowledge comes from rivers, creeks and dry land. Wetlands, reefs and seas are part of this subject but have no stories here yet, which leaves a gap worth filling.^1,2,3,4,5

Some results are reported by the groups doing the work. Independent measurement of how streams and groundwater respond over time would help others learn what to expect.⁵