Hello everyone,
I hope this post finds you well. I 'specially hope you haven't had a bout of the flu that's been going 'round this post-Christmas and January 2015. I had several miserable days of it, followed by three weeks of something akin to sleeping sickness! Been years since something knocked me out the way this has.
But, I'm pretty well over it and trying to reconcile the fact that I can only do so much. This evening I was online reading, and ...
I'm 59. When I was a
kid, National Geographic Magazine only came by subscription. I didn't realize way back then how lucky I
was that my England-born, school-leaving-at-grade-six father subscribed. I don't know what experiences led him to be
interested in the whole world, the world that came into our home through
National Geographic. Perhaps it was his
14 years in the British Army, 1937-1951, serving in Egypt,
Malta, and Palestine.
Dad was born February
7, 1912; died June 1, 1992. In Stratford,
Ontario, where he emigrated to in 1951, he
became a house painter and paper hanger, and worked at that until he
retired. I've got a feeling I
underestimated him, probably a lot.
Today I was browsing the City Farmer website as I do most
days, and ran across a National Geographic article Securing Water for Urban Farms (http://www.cityfarmer.info/2015/01/20/securing-water-for-urban-farms/#more-231115)
The
article outlines some ways in which cities can capture and use water for use in
urban farms. The article also points out
that water issues are everywhere we look.
And we need to look around us more.
Last year I happened to have a chat with one of the senior London,
Ont. city staff - found out that we don't have such a thing as a reservoir to hold
captured rainwater. I was sort of
surprised by that because I've been at Planning and Environment meetings where
the topic was problems caused by stormwater run-off mixing with the sewer
system, and overwhelming the water treatment system. That means that too much rainwater goes down
the drain (so to speak).
The staff person did say that he figured there'd be a need
for rainwater capture in future as energy/economy changes. He's no slouch when it comes to big picture
stuff.
When I look across the road from my place during a rainstorm
all I see is cubic meters of rainwater running down paved road and asphalt
parking areas, rushing into the sewers, not having any way to get onto land and
benefit growing plants ... not having a way to become a part of the
"ecosystem services" a city needs to keep its natural areas growing. And not just its natural areas down by the
river, but water to keep the lawns and gardens of homeowners flourishing. All the water gets taken away before it gets
to urban lawns; properties and roadways and sidewalks are sloped to take the
water away.
How often have you seen a "berm" cleverly holding
in a parking lot so it doesn't escape ... and the berm is sloped so that any
rainwater immediately runs off onto the sidewalk and thus onto the road and
down the sewer? So there's no chance for
the rainwater to linger and soak into the carefully arranged
"planting" of four spirea and a pampas grass (even with the
artificially straight ditch enclosing them).
Even the drive in/out of the parking lot circles the garden with a curb,
so any rain going onto the parking lot rushes down the in/out road and
away. Not a chance for those four spirea
and pampas grass.
My "one thing" done today may be to have read the article on water and to think about how important it is.
What's your experience?
Best regards,
Why's Woman
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