Rain Collection Pond in Chemnitz Germany

Like most Californians, I turn off the water tap while washing my hands, water the yard twice a week and think about saving water. I thought our state was on top of things but of course one of the benefits of traveling is seeing other ways of approaching common problems.

Israel, like California, has water trouble and they go way beyond hand washing and water restrictions. Their irrigation system uses treated domestic waste water, delivers water directly to plant roots, and uses desalination plants. They have been working on this a long time and have innovations around everything to do with water: engineering, facilities, planning, public education, taxes and policies.

Denmark and Germany, on the other hand, are dealing with too much rain water. In Odense Denmark the street we stayed on was torn up because officials were putting in a rain water diversion system to keep the rain out of the regular sewers. Later in Værløse Denmark we saw several man-made ponds for collecting rain water. Now in Chemnitz I notice that on the street where we are staying there are four similar collecting ponds, all designed to hold and manage rain drainage in an effort to mitigate floods and keep the water system clean. This sketch is of one of the large rain collection ponds on a Chemnitz street.

This is a pencil sketch that was imported into Procreate for color and reshaping.