"I hosted a cisten installation at my home in January and February of this year. It was an amazing process that began with a grant award from WMG, followed by planning meetings with Lincoln, and ultimately a truck load of supplies and a whole flock of people arriving at my house on a cold, rainy January morning, smiling and ready to work!
The back story of this process is pretty straight forward. I moved to Tucson in January 2008, and at that time I knew I wanted to xeriscape and develop passive water harvesting and possibly a grey water catchment on my property. I did my homework, studied my water shed and went to work on creating my basin system. Although I had great potential for a cistern system, the installation quotes from several local companies were cost prohibitive.
At one of our neighborhood meetings our Ward I representative, Diana Rhodes mentioned the WMG and its co-op program. I began attending workshops and demonstration site installations around town and was very impressed with WMG’s mission and commitment to natural resource management at the grass roots level. The rest is history. I was hooked!
I love the co-op model, and in particular the execution of this model with water harvesting. It is a wonderful opportunity for people with a variety of skills and knowledge to come together and share in an education (and fun) environment, working neighbor with neighbor, and sharing skills, knowledge, tools, and experience. This program is what allowed me to install cisterns on my property, develop my catchment basis and advance my vision in a matter of a few short weeks! Did I mention the incredible food that usually accompanies each work shop?
The impact in my community has been more far-reaching than I had anticipated. At my installation, many folks arrived on bikes (tools in hand) while the street filled with cars. Of course, this piqued the interest of the surrounding neighbors, as well as many folks who drove by. Several neighbors stopped over to ask what was going on; others poked their heads over the fences to ask similar questions. Some came by and hung out for a long time, just watching the progress. Some, having heard rumors, came by weeks later, wanting to know what I was doing. I have hosted several informal tours of my site, passing out WMG brochures and co-op applications. Several neighbors have expressed an interest in having an assessment on their property, It was a great opportunity to spread the word about the needs of our water stewardship, the work of WMG, and water harvesting principles in general, and why it makes sense in Tucson, and in particular our neighborhood.
Our community is also organizing around a community garden project, and many people, having seen my project, are now thinking about how we can incorporate these kinds of principles in our garden project. This has been a wonderful seed in our barrio.
Thank you very much for sharing your resources with me."