Permanent Agriculture

Living in India has made me hyper-aware of issues I didn't think about all that much before, namely 1. Consumption. 2. Sanitation. 3. Water. In Bombay, a city with so many millions, and India, a country of one billion, it is overwhelming to try to conceptualize the amount of trash and human waste produced. It's no wonder many foreigners who visit India think it's dirty. Without working infrastructure, all the things that are supposed to be hidden from sight--sewers, household waste, loos--stare you in the face. US cities would suffer a similar downfall if we didn't have urban planners laying pipe under our feet or constructing landfills on the outskirts of our cities.

Without infrastructure, Bombay wears its underwear on the outside. I look out the window of our office building in Malad and see a black river, 25-feet wide, banks built with trash, releasing toxic smells. I've seen children playing in this same river, unaware of what how clean water looks and smells. I ride the train and see women and children using the tracks to relieve themselves. Their small houses don't have running water and their communities don't have a toilet. Their only option is to use the space away from their houses--even if they risk being seen by the 6 million people that go back and forth by train, just a couple of yards away. I walk past a slum just a block from my house some mornings, and see the children squatting on newspaper. There's an open sewer steps away. They, too, have no other option.

I bring all of this up to explain my interest in finding new ways to alleviate these problems. My visit in Bali to a permaculture training center and pilot project was all the more relevant. IDEP Foundation works on two fronts: community sustainability projects and disaster relief. They were and still are heavily involved in the post-tsunami Bandh Aceh rehabilitation effort.

I met with the ED of IDEP to talk about their innovative sustainable farming and community-building techniques, including the use of biogas cook stoves, and Wastewater Gardens. Wastewater Gardens® have proven to be far more effective, affordable & long lasting than conventional (high tech) sewage treatment, particularly in remote areas and tropical zones (from their site). Basically, through a series of holding tanks, a wastewater garden can help turn human waste into clean water by using plants as an extractor and processor that pulls toxins out of the mix.

IDEP has set up a site where they can educate farmers and communities about how to grow their own household garden, how to cultivate hybrid rice varieties, how to compost waste, and how to create a Wastewater garden. The pilot project is an amazing example of permaculture, an approach to the development of agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies. It’s one of the most sustainable practices available for the production of food and the preservation of soil and water.



Above, green, green plants are growing in a tank that filters irrigation water. Bali has an intricate irrigation system, but many villagers also use the streams to wash clothes and go to the bathroom. Wastewater gardens help filter the toxins.