Permatil Water Solutions

Name: Eugenio (Ego) Lemos (Dip. Permaculture, MA Community Development)

Occupation: Musician, singer, songwriter, Permaculturalist, environmental activist, educator, lecturer, curriculum writer.

Career Highlights: 

-      Founder and Executive Director Permatil (Permaculture Timor Leste)

-      National Adviser for Ministry of Education of Timor-Leste for National Curriculum Development on Arts & Culture and Permaculture Gardens in School.

-      Co-authored A Tropical Permaculture Guidebook - a Gift from Timor Leste, 2006, 2018. (www.permatilglobal.org) used extensively in Timor and globally and Permaculture Gardens for kids.

-      Authored ‘Training Manual for Agro-biodiversity in Timor-Leste (GIZ-AMBERO)’

-      founder-coordinator of the Sustainable Agriculture Network and Organic Agriculture Movement in Timor-Leste.

Awards:

-      The Earth Hall of Fame KYOTO, The Earth Forum Kyoto, Japan, February 2019. 

-      Earth Company Impact Hero Finalist, Asia-Pacific. 

-      Human Right Award ‘Sergio Viera de Mello’, Republic Democratic of Timor-Leste, 2018. 

-      Best Original Song Composed for Screen, 2009 APRA-AMCOS Screen Awards in Australia.

My goal is for Timor to achieve food security through agroecology / permaculture by training and inspiring youth and school children who spread techniques throughout communities, now and into the future.  To achieve this, we must solve the problem of water scarcity.

I’m proposing to address water scarcity through rejuvenating eco-hydrological systems of water management through natural reservoirs feeding natural springs. This involves regenerating natural eco-systems by restoring degraded soils and planting trees, improving water capture and retention, whilst greatly increasing biodiversity. It requires commitment of local community members leading to restoration of traditional skills, and greater connection to their environment.

This could elevate humanity by demonstrating that restoring natural systems is key to growing food sustainably, helping humanity realise that we rely on nature, are part of nature and that our only hope for the future is to work with nature and restore natural systems.

The specific problem we are working to solve is water scarcity. Achieving water security will enable permaculture programs to solve problems of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Water scarcity affects communities across all of Timor-Leste, impacting around 1.2 million people. To obtain safe water in the capital, Dili, people must buy water.  In rural areas, women and children must carry it long distances. 

Permatil has been addressing issues of food security through Permaculture Youth Camps and School Garden programs. Since Permaculture was introduced to the school curriculum in 2016, over 200 schools have established productive food gardens. The techniques learnt in schools spread throughout communities, resulting in more food for all. But impacts on food security are limited by water availability.

Every year across Timor there are several months when vegetables in schools, homes and farms, cannot be watered leading to no fresh vegetables available, greater reliance on unhealthy food and longer ‘hungry times’.

The main factors that have contributed to this problem include climate change and slash and burn farming practices. Permatil works to eliminate slash and burn techniques via school and youth permaculture education.  Impacts of climate change can be eased through reinstating and enhancing eco-hydrological systems.

Our project is to address water scarcity through natural water sources conservation and watershed management community by community. 

We begin by working with local leaders to identify locations of past natural reservoirs and springs and together plan how best to rehabilitate these so that reservoirs will again fill in the wet season and feed springs throughout the year. We train local youth as we re-dig reservoirs, patch up previous drainage channels, create swales and plant trees to retain and conserve water, learning together as we go.

The local community’s commitment to continue looking after the springs, reservoirs and trees over coming years is crucial to ensure gradual increase in water supply and long-term survival of restored systems.  Ensuring the community feels ownership and has strong understanding is thus crucial.

More water is subsequently available for food growing, easing hungry times and the water collection burden of women and children.  Year-round water availability maximises the impact and widespread community adoption of permaculture skills taught in the Permaculture Youth Camps and School Garden programs, subsequently greatly enhancing food security.

Since the project began in 2016, Permatil has led the conservation and rehabilitation of more than 70 springs and natural reservoirs nationwide. 

The project serves communities across Timor-Leste particularly rural communities.

Around 80% of Timorese rely on agriculture for their living however knowledge of sustainable growing practices has been widely lost. Reduced rainfall and insufficient water capture and storage results in escalating difficulty for people to feed their families. Childhood malnutrition remains critically high, affecting cognitive and physical development. Stunting affects around 50% and wasting around 10%.  November to March are known as ‘hungry months’. 

Permatil’s Perma Youth Camp and School Garden programs address these issues by spreading techniques that increase productivity of family farms and encourage people to grow more food at their homes. School children love putting their knowledge into practice at home and youth camp participants are keen to lead change in their communities.  They are all frustrated by the limits lack of sufficient water puts on their abilities to grow all year and enable others to do so. Revitalisation of natural systems of rain retention and storage provides the missing piece to enable communities to become self-reliant on food.

Project success comes by engaging with local community leaders, establishing joint ownership with the community, listening to, respecting and using local knowledge and building local skills to maintain systems.

Permatil's programs empower people across Timor from urban centre's to remote villages. Timor has many small villages that are very isolated due to rugged terrain and dangerous conditions, making supply of support, materials and equipment very difficult.  Despite higher levels of poverty, these people are often left behind. 

Our philosophy is to make use of nature’s local renewable materials – whether it be in building a fence or securing reliable water. This often requires changes in attitudes from looking to quick fixes based manufactured products to resourcefulness of using what is available, free and work in the local environment.  

Around 74% of the Timorese population is under 35 with limited employment opportunities. In 2008 I decided to create youth permaculture leaders to lead their communities in addressing food insecurity.  Initially working with the scout movement, Permatil brings youth from across the country together in a lively, challenging week of self-development and learning permaculture. 

The next step was to provide examples of successful growing in each community and I thought of schools as a place of education, central to each community and having land owned by government.  Securing a curriculum writing role with the Education Department in 2013 led to incorporating permaculture into the school curriculum.  

I wanted to address water issues because I could see the impact on women and children of carrying water vast distances every day, particularly in remote communities. Children miss vital time studying and playing. 

I believe that the best solutions can be found in nature.  For thousands of years the mountains of Timor provided water through natural systems of reservoirs and springs. Over the last 5 years I have worked with my team at Permatil and people within communities to work out the best ways to restore these. This completes a food security pathway. 

I am passionate about this project because it is crucial to enabling people of my country to live well. I grew up in Timor under occupation. As a young boy I spent 3 years hiding in the forests with my family and others, until being captured.  I lost two siblings due to lack of healthy food.  As my mother raised me, I formed 2 loves that have shaped my life – music and nature. I found my breakfast walking through the forest to school, inspired by monkeys foraging.  I studied agriculture at university, but knew it wasn’t relevant for families and communities of Timor.  I discovered permaculture in 2001: practices that suited Timorese communities and aligned with lost traditional skills - but I needed to introduce them in ways appropriate to Timorese. People wouldn’t come to classes, so with guitar on my back I travelled the country on my motorbike spreading skills. 

Now my organisation’s permaculture youth camps and school gardens are proven to provide the skills and motivation needed for food security and communities are asking for more. The great limitation now is water security.  We have the skills and drive to solve this issue for our people.

I am the leading expert of the application of permaculture in tropical areas. My Tropical Permaculture Guidebook has been used as a teaching tool in development projects across many countries and has recently been released in an on-line format with over 82,700 chapters downloaded in 174 countries.

Over 19 years I have achieved widespread respect across Timor as a musician, for success in teaching permaculture creatively, and for my dedication to the task of food security and food sovereignty for Timor.  Timorese respect my advice.

I understand my country and the people, the local community structures and nuances. I respect local people’s knowledge and take the time to listen to them and learn from them. These projects rely on understanding the local geography, knowledge that can only come from local community members. They also rely on ‘buy-in’ from the local community, especially community leaders, because they will be needed to ensure each system is cared for so that it can be successful (for example by tending young trees that are planted).

My knowledge of eco-hydrology has grown significantly through our experiences over the last 5 years.

Permatil is staffed by Timorese with commitment and passion for Permaculture and food sovereignty and security for Timor.  We are now positioning staff in various centre’s across the country so that they can support the school garden programs and water catchment projects. Where possible we position staff in areas they are from as they have a better understanding of local conditions and communities.

When the school gardens were first introduced in Timor-Leste, many parents were opposed to them believing that their children should be learning to read and write, not pulling out weeds. Some were so angry that they knocked down garden fences and pulled out plants. Where this had occurred, the principal and Permatil staff persevered until eventually we were able to engage the parents in working with students and teachers in the garden. It was only then that the parents came to understand the value of the learning opportunities the gardens provide and changed to enthusiastic supporters. 

We realized that for the school garden programs to succeed we must always begin by building community acceptance.  We started incorporating socialization of the school garden into the very first steps in implementing each new school garden program.  A school garden committee is formed comprising parents and teachers and community members are invited to attend the permaculture teacher training sessions.  This results in the whole community understanding why the program is run and its full benefits.  

As the reputation of the garden program grows, resistance is diminishing but the value of skills and ownership across the community that the socialization steps create will remain.

In 2013 I was engaged to lead the writing of the Arts and Culture section of the new Timor-Leste primary school curriculum.  I reasoned that permaculture techniques involve creativity and are consistent with traditional Timorese cultural farming techniques, and so incorporated permaculture skills and the development of school food gardens into the curriculum.  The government accepted the curriculum in 2015 but unfortunately no extra funding was made available to implement school gardens.

To make the gardens a reality, I sought funding elsewhere. Initially this came from small organisations who each funded one pilot school. I developed teacher training workshops and trained Permatil volunteers to provide hands-on support to schools to establish gardens.  I also encouraged teachers to see the gardens as a living classroom that can be used to teach other aspects of the curriculum such as maths, science and language. Children take the skills they learn home, increasing productivity of family farms and encouraging growing of food in home gardens. As the success of gardens have been demonstrated I have been able to gain more funding and Permatil has now supported the implementation of school gardens in over 200 schools, increasing food security for over 200,000 people.