The funding so far has gone towards supporting the establishment of the project through its initial stage. Specifically, this has involved using funding for the construction of an amenities block, with both male and female showers and composting toilet.
This is a building is an excellent demonstration of a sustainable toilet system and is in stark contrast to the present local situation of open, unsealed, underground tanks that leak into the ground waters and are a serious potential health hazard. These local waste systems often do not involve air traps and are in many locations soaking directly into the local catchments.
In contrast, the compost toilets, when built correctly and used correctly are safe and they have the added advantage of being a dry compost system, so there is no waste of the valuable, scarce water supplies, except for the necessary hygiene associated with washing.
A further advantage of the composting toilet system is that the final result is reasonably good soil amendment compost for the growing of fruit trees, or any trees in the environment. Further, the shower block has been constructed so that the shower and wash water is biologically cleaned and then passed through a grey water reed bed system before it flows out as irrigation for gardens, fruit trees and vegetables. With this system there is no problem at all with the quality of water for garden use. Therefore, in combination, the shower and composting toilet are great examples of a system, which both saves and reuses water.
The buildings have been constructed using local materials and are of a local building style (that is, a concrete block, with suspended concrete floor and a flat concrete roof). We have also set up a roof water catchment system to harvest the occasional rains. Now, rainwater falling on the roof catches and goes directly into the main irrigation tank on the site. Water harvesting has also been maximised through the strategic positioning of the amenities block where the water draining from the reed bed runs down slope. This is an asset because it allows gravity flow of irrigation for the productive use of land in the lower areas, closer to the intended site of the main infrastructure.
We have also set up a shade house on the site for growing vegetables and a nursery of fruit trees. Again, the nursery is set up high on the site, next to the amenities block, so that the significant amount of water which does soak through a nursery is able to be fed back into the landscape on the way back down the slope.
A small building that was already on the site has been renovated to function as temporary accommodation for students and interns. There is just one room, functioning as a bedroom, and then there is a small kitchen and temporary bathroom attached. There is also a lock-up tool store, so that tools, valuables and bicycles can be stored securely. The building was rendered during the renovation and is now suitable to serve as a residence for a caretaker when no students are there.
In this regard, a caretaker has been engaged to make sure all the trees are watered and extra fruit trees and gardens have been established which are producing food. There are food and vegetable gardens, fruit, shade and mulch trees; and all of these have been set up under irrigation systems and a lot of them will survive simply on the water recycled through the reed beds.
The fence and gate have been implemented to secure the site and local water supply is now available, although it's only for a few hours a week, which is when we fill our tanks for irrigation. The local electricity has been connected, but in the future we would like to demonstrate solar energy systems because of the enormous availability of sunlight in the region which presents the opportunity for harvesting very high quality, extremely economical and sustainable solar power once we have the new main building in position.
Another valuable outcome of the work so far is that we have established a garden at the local girls school (which is just a few hundred metres from the project site). As a result, this school now has organic vegetable production, with a mixed food forest and a small nursery of their own, along with a small outdoor classroom.
This adjunct site not only demonstrates and showcases our work further, but the school children are now receiving lessons about how to establish and maintain these types of productive systems. A very good relationship has been cultivated with the school and our students and interns work closely with the school to help educate and demonstrate to the children the practice and skills of good land use practice. This has the beneficial impact of not only training the next generation of Jordanian children in effective land use, but the school children, in turn, take their new skills and knowledge home and pass back this information to their families at home.
Thus, the project and school sites provide an outstanding example of what is possible with efficient systems in this area and it is something that can be readily replicated by locals across the region. Indeed, the visible demonstration of productive outcomes is of significant benefit to the local community as locals have already begun replicating our garden system.
Another positive outcome of our work so far is that we have conducted a Permaculture Design Certificate course on the site. This course attracted a lot of international students whose course fees helped fund local students to complete the course. In this way, we have demonstrated a sustainable income from the site, with funds arriving via tuition fees and also from the sale of produce harvested at both the project site and school garden.
To conclude, everything has progressed extremely well and we are in position to move to the next stage. Our aim in this next stage is to get funding for the construction of the main building on site. While this building will appear to be a house from the outside, it will actually function as a classroom, the male dormitory, (as female students will stay in the village with local families), the administration site and kitchen. We will not need a bathroom and toilet in this building as these are already on site (as per the details provided above). The establishment of the main infrastructure building will allow us to have a permanent presence on the site and to run education courses continuously. The local community is in full support of what we are doing and they would greatly appreciate funding for the next sage of development, which we can facilitate.
Our planned upcoming activities in Jordan are an Introduction to Permaculture Course in June and then the Permaculture Design Certificate Course in October.
As there are numerous schools that have now approached us requesting that we emulate, for them, our school garden, we also intend to do begin doing that. In fact, the demand of local schools for our design work is arguably the clearest indication that locals want us to complete the existing project so its full potential can be realised and that they are hoping we can extend and expand the project throughout their community.