All Forum Posts by: Timothy Borg

Cantey Foundation Specialists  (864) 774-2206

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The concept of re introducing water to a desert biome is pretty interesting, to say the least. Geoff Lawton is a researcher and author who deals with permaculture, and has been developing and maintaining a farm in the Arab (?I believe?) Desert with the sole purpose of sequestering more water in the ground during precipitation events thereby recharging the aquifers and increasing the overall precipitation amounts every year.

He believes that desertification (the loss of water) can be reversed by strategically working the earth with certain swales, ditching, and plant choices. It's known that the roots of trees act as needles that inject precipitation deep into the earth with every rainfall. Without trees or deeply rooted plants, the soil and deep underground aquifers don't get recharged with rainfall. The rain that does fall puddles on the dry surface soil (which becomes hydrophobic when particularly dry), and then after many years we have what's known as a desert.

So, to answer the original question, we need to put the environment first. Capture the water that is falling, and try to reintroduce it into the groundwater system through mother nature's own faculties. Nothing else that mankind can do will fundamentally solve the problem.