Tuesday 20 January 2009

precious little





it's been an interesting week...we've made some lovely samples and had some delightful excursions. 


yesterday we visited the Nikau forest, for a mindful windfall walk collecting windfalls found within arms reach at node points in the walk. these nodes are determined by each individual so it means that although 12 people walked through this forest and 12 samples were made, each of these samples was different. it's a matter of choosing when to stop...at the end of the verse of your favourite song playing in headspace? the next time you hear a birdcall? counting to tweny? [that one's a last resort] 



today we went to the Waikanae River where we collected exotic weeds, bundling them in cloth around river stones and giving them a  good soak before taking them back to the studio to be steamed. which brings me to my point. the Waikanae River seemed extraordinarily low to me.
looking around the Kapiti community i don't think i've seen a single house with a rainwater tank.
in a country with such clean air [well at least during the non coal burning months] and documented rainfall  of 977 - 1091 mm per year this is frankly astounding. 

instead here on the Kapiti Coast the Waikanae River is pumped into pipes so that water flows into sinks and baths when taps are turned on. 

but think about this. the Kapiti Campus buildings of Whitireia Polytechnic offer at least [and this is based on an estimation of the roof area] 
(12 x 90 x 2) + (2 x 12 x 30) square metres of roof catchment area. maths ain't my strong point but multiply this by the potential rainfall and that's a pretty substantial puddle.

if that resource were stored in concrete tanks instead of being diverted into the stormwater system it could supply the campus easily. AND we'd have brighter colours in the dyepots!

if every new house here were required to install rainwater tanks then the river wouldn't run out and they wouldn't have to pump out the groundwater. keep going at this rate and they'll be in the same pickle that we are in across the ditch.

go figure.

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. I removed the comment above as it didn't have any bearing on the subject of post and was simply listing what appeared to be a website for a company selling cameras and software.

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  3. your so right about this thing India; here in Holland we have very much water, atlthough we collect it for our nursery in two big tanks. And for our second home in Franch I know they stimulate a home-rainwatertank and will give you extra money to build one. greetings Dorie

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  4. It is 1 litre of water per square metre of roof space per mil of rain I believe.

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  5. India i wonder, why don't people know?

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  6. excuse me my words but...shiiiit.I missed a couple of posts and missed putting a pearl in your felted hat. The solution of the waterproblem can be so easy..but almost everything in life can be so easy if we start caring about each other.
    yvette

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  7. Yvette's right. Sometimes the answer is really simple. But now it seems that being simple is beyond us. We are used to being complicated. I for one am a city girl now. Growing my own veges might mess up our yard, upset the landlord and neighbours plus the plants will probably die because we don't know What we are doing. So easy to go to the supermarket where everything is done for us. Don't get me wrong. I'd love to have a more eco-friendly life, but we don't live in those kind of communities anymore. Bring them back I say!

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