Our site has always had a problem with water and even after putting in extensive drainage the water table is extremely high. So we got a digger in and dug a massive hole looking to create a sump to help drain the water away and went through the ground rock and had water coming up from there as well! So Pete scratched his head and came up with a maverick plan!
An additional grant for the Local Food Fund paid for a pump, 500l tank, solar panels, 6000l and pipe to be laid. The plan was to shift all our water up to the top of the allotment site so the 250 plotholders could water their allotments with our recycled water. It took Pete and co lots of plotting and planning and lo and behold the Tower of Power…
When it’s all working well we can pump up to 15 000 litres of water up 13m and across 400m to the top of the hill. It also provides all the water to water the garden AND the solar panels have been rigged up to our strawbale building so we have lights and with the inverter and batteries we can even boil a kettle!