The Ancient Irrigation Systems of Oman; Wadi Bani Khalid
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- čas přidán 26. 04. 2023
- Water is life! Follow Geoff as he explores Wadi Bani Khalid with one of the world's oldest and most remarkable water management systems-the Falaj. There, gravity's magic is used to bring water to the surface, slow it down and spread it, and then divert it to support gardens and households where needed. This is an excellent example of a permanent, sustainable, and productive system that could go on indefinitely.
The Wadi Beni Khalid in Oman boasts a 25-kilometer stretch of date palm trees, which are sustained by a water system that has likely been in operation for thousands of years. This system is still well-maintained and productive. The area is home to a variety of fruit trees, including mangos, citrus, fig, mulberry, custard apples, and papayas.
Right now, it’s running with a good flow in the channel due to extra rain, but it has been running for thousands of years and never stops. It is built to withstand desert floods. A rock barrage dam built by locals and meshed together with palm fiber backs up a pool of water and allows irrigation to move from one side of the valley to the other. It creates an extremely efficient model we can replicate and even improve with modern technology.
There’s no question, after thousands of years, that it’s sustainable, but more potential is there. The entire catchment could be diversified and increased in fertility easily. The protentional for nitrogen-fixing pollarding is there. The mainframe system is in place, with channels going in all directions to water the gardens.
Built around a water source, gravity flows, and adding a bit of fertility, this system has lasted thousands of years. It’s something modern agriculture can’t sustain. Modern systems collapse after 100, even just 50, years because all the fertility is gone. We should be using these ancient, proven systems as models for new, sustainable designs.
This video is the fourth in a series where Geoff takes us on a journey through Oman’s ancient water harvesting and irrigation systems. To follow his adventure, watch the following videos:
The Ancient Irrigation Systems of Oman - • The Ancient Irrigation...
The Ancient Irrigation Systems of Oman; Misfat Al Abriyeen - • The Ancient Irrigation...
The Ancient Irrigation Systems of Oman; Birkat Al Mouz - • The Ancient Irrigation...
To see even more of Geoff's visit to Oman, check out his social media posts on Facebook ( / geofflawtononline ) or Instagram ( / geofflawtononline .
To support us in making more videos:
► Watch the Permaculture Masterclass: www.discoverpermaculture.com
► Like us on Facebook: / geofflawtononline
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► And most importantly, enjoy your permaculture journey!
About Geoff:
Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other and to return the surplus.
About Permaculture:
Permaculture integrates land, resources, people, and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies - imitating the no-waste, closed-loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics, and community development.
#water #desert #foodforest
there are no words to describe the beauty of the engineering here!
Simplicity in action, the beauty of it
do it!
this is such a perfect example of what is possible.
do it!
Just watched the first two 'Greening the Desert' videos again. I'm amazed at how far this series has come in 12 years. From 10 acres of nothing that persisted for 10 years, the successful Greening the Desert and Oasis sites, to the documentation of systems thousands of years old and 25 kilometers long. It works!
It's like a real garden of Eden. Absolutely beautiful.
It's beautiful, thank you for showing us. I also love the sound of frogs in background.
Thank you so much for this video, that makes so great hope, that nature will help us, if we take care of her with love and knowledge. I will send it to our partner in Northern Syria, who is trying to feed 670 people in tents with gardens. Blessings from Austria.
I camped beside a falaj in Wadi Dam. It was perfect. Using a small submersible pump I was able to draw the clean water straight from the source. This reminded me of that trip. Oman is a beautiful country. Love 🇴🇲.
Hey Geoff, thanks for showcasing these systems. Through these tours I've really come to appreciate encountering these systems 'in the wild'. I recently visited Santo Antao in the Cape Verdes, an extremely arid island that look like you're on the Moon. However, the valleys were verdant and green, because the local population caught rainwater from the mountain tops and guided it all the way down to the sea. It is a truly beautiful example of permaculture, with dozens of types of crops growing there. I recommend you visit it!
Brilliant Geoff, thankyou. Regards Alan,
Wow, why don't we do that here in the USA? We could have gardens in drought. Thanks so much for sharing this!
Geoff shows and says it can be done anywhere around the world, so this or an even better system can definitely be done in the US.
Indigenous people knew how to create green spaces for thousands of years, yet nobody listened when Europeans arrived.
The knowledge is there.
Check out any vid of the Arizona swale walls. Geoff visited it and has one posted.
@@stevenkarner6872 Saw it, and have seen videos of people doing it small scale. Meanwhile, US farmers grow rice in Arizona. It's so stupid.
Ask your First Nation people... Crony Crapitalism destroyed it
Be the change you'd like to see in the world.
I'd love to see more videos like this! Thanks so much for sharing.
beautiful
I'm working on my 28 acers in new mexico this summer. hope to be this sucesfull in a few years!
just gorgeous!
Very Nice, Thank you, Geoff. Big enough for a flying drone next time.
Inspired to catalyse more productivity in our Sydney backyard. Hoooray.
If they add reed beds to clean the water, wouldn't that improve the water and remove some of the sludge?
What could be done higher up to shade the water, reduce evaporation? Rock overhangs, maybe drought tolerant grasses or shrubs?
I see places where evaporation is a problem that could keep the moisture in the area.
It's amazing how well this was made considering the lack of things like meteorology, soil biome knowledge.
For sure! I think that’s what Geoff was getting at. Couple this with appropriate technologies, modern species diversity, etc and you could really expound upon what’s already happening. It’s really inspiring thinking about all the possibilities
Sludge? The water looked clear to me.
What a wonderful treat. Thank you Mr Lawton.
what a beautiful privilege to see and explore
OH MY GOD!!!!! Thank you Geoff to show us this...amazing, it brings tears to my eyes!
Water in the commons... great stuff.
Amazing!! Thanks so much Geoff!
I'd love to see this done in the American southwest and Texas.
Excellent. Thank you for sharing an overview of a tried and true system, succeeding in an arid land. Would work in the southwest USA, easily.
Hard work to create the backbone, but the results would be amazing.
Love it thanks for your great work
Beautiful project. Thank you for sharing. I might have liked a bit more of the nitty gritty about how the irrigation is designed and flow controlled. Seems like there will be times that the water must be rationed.
Thanks again for sharing
Thanks
Beautiful.... Holy Wow!
Thank you
Very interesting.
It just makes sense.
Great video Geo, you are my inspiration for my farm projects.
Wow!
its amazing to hear how many types of animals that are in this paradise on earth
Incredible!
Thanks, this is amazing. I have been thinking about getting a patch for regenerative agriculture going in the Northern Cape or Namibia ... Thanks for your invaluable work, I've learned so much from you!. BTW, how deep are these channels?
Awesome.
Incrível! Simples e eficiente como disse no vídeo 🌳🌴
Amazing and inspiring
Outstanding.....👍 really
Breathtaking. A big oasis and as you said, it has the potential to be scaled up both in coverage and diversity since it already has an extremely stable mainframe foundation. One could go nuts in there. It beckons.
wow.
🙏❤👏
The video is very interesting. The wadi system and the dry stone terraces remind me of my island, Majorca. Here we have the same system of terraces but all over the island including the mountains. Olive trees, carob trees are grown on the higher terraces They are excellent for fixing nitrogen and also produce carob beans that are used both to feed livestock and for the aesthetic and food industry.
As the terraces decrease in altitude, vineyards, almond trees, plums, figs, apricots, citrus fruits, vegetables, grass are cultivated. And at different levels, cisterns are created to conserve water from seasonal rains. It would have to be said that this system it also captures water by condensation.
In my modest opinion, if they made terraces in the mountains and planted olive, carob, pine, mastic or pistachio trees, they would be able to increase the productive land and the amount of water, while creating microclimates. The heaviest job would be creating the stone walls , but the materials would be free and the construction would last centuries. The organic matter would be created by the same vegetation and animals, it would be deposited by sedimentation.
I guess one question to ask is whether all those bare rock hillsides could be made greener too without the sustainable food forest in the wadi bottom losing its vigour? Presumably, the way things are now, almost no water is retained higher up. What happens if you tried to retain some of that moisture higher up the hillsides????
Higher in the hills the slope is too steep to hold water. The way to expand this system is at the sides, bottom, and in diversity. But absent changing the entire ecosystem of the area (which can be done but is an enormous project) there is a limit based on the area of the size of the watershed and annual rainfall, stretching it too far could kill the whole thing.
The food of the gods!
non-native food plants - to extend the range. an easy improvement.
What did Bill say about the solutions to the worlds problems are embarrassingly simple.
💕💖💕💖
Where is the water actually coming from? I only ask because that is quite a flow in such an arid environment suggesting its coming from some underground spring. (Edit: Ah I see in an UNESCO video the source is from a mountain 40 kilometers (24 miles) away, where there is plenty of water that was collected in wells made a 1,000 years ago and they made channels to get to this area. So great engineering to be sure but wonder if it can work in vegas?
You need to see the most sophisticated watering system of all time which since 2500 years ago working in Iran which is called Qanat
how receptive would the locals be to additions? also, it seems important to detail how its falling apart, like give specifics,
I would love to build those aquaducts but seems it would require so much concrete on my sandy property
Can you help improve a fynboss ecosystem with mediterranean weather? Im planning on buying a huge cheap piece of land that nobody wants and turn it into a nice food forest park for people to come anytime and take whatever fruits they want, its a 16 hectare or about 40 acre piece of land, its rocky and sandy with lots of succulent hardy native plants.
What would be some of the ways to improve this system?
Probably stopping the overgrazing on the uphill slopes, and establishing drought-tolerant tree hay pollards up there, would increase the total humidity of the system. The livestock would benefit from shade and better nutrients, and total productivity would climb as stacked functionality increased...
It seems like mostly they're farming fruit. I wonder why they don't grow starches in the same space?
I 🤔 no he mentioned in this video that there is the potential, within this particular system, of increasing the variety of food producing plants by 4x
🥰
wold be nice to see, how they handle daily human leftovers? an wat will GLawton , improve or change ☘️
Water for energy through small irrigation
elon wants to do this to mars but can't even do this at home
So true. What a joke. Humans colonizing other planets would be a scourge on the galaxy until we’ve learned the lessons the Earth has to teach.
HAVE YOU studied the Nabatean irrigation
Its so basic, the experts overlook it.
hey geoff... what would you do to turn a forest into a food forest while making sure that the forest fleurishes... im from canada and we have forest everywhere.
im like a kid in a candy store
You can grasp that this was build back when the Islamic world was the scientific leader of the world. Where could the world be if we kept up with this and not waste our resources on wars?
I think, Eden must have look like this before Adam and Eve were banished.
Overgrazing, is what destroys these places. There probably much better, If grazing would be controlled.
I advise you to go to Algeria or even the great oases of Timimoune, Biskra, El Mania, Ghardaia, Adrar and their thousand-year-old irrigation system called fogara

What do you mean? Is this water flowing all year? In this case it's pretty rare. Where I live small streams, rivers are drying out for more than 6 months and no rain. It's working on this special location. And also water is polluted almost everywhere. How a stream/river like this going for 25 km spreading pollution will change the landscape for better?
In your area, it's likely due to water running off all at once instead of soaking into the ground and providing a slow, steady flow all year round.
You should look into what your watershed looks like and what parts can be regenerated (usually ground that is bare and/or can't hold water). Water needs to soak into the ground.
The stream isn't polluted. If it were it wouldn't be supporting all that life. There are many systems in Permaculture for slowing spreading and soaking water. Lack of year round water is probably the result of human interference, not the natural state.
Is this really all rain runoff ? Coz those desert irrigation systems usually are NOT sustainable because they simply pump/use underground aquifers. You wouldn't call the cattle industry in Australia sustainable, all they do is drain the Great Arstesian Basin. Now it would be sustainable if the rain would replenish what you take away on average, but in Australia it's definitely NOT the case. Now, these aquifers are huge and may last for more centuries, but then they will just dry out all of a sudden. In Egypt, they're gonna build cities in the desert based on that model of drilling aquifers, it's absolutely insane. It would be more sustainable (but still quite bad for the environment) to have ginormous desalination plants and water pipelines going through the desert...
Geoff said that it has been there for thousands of years.