UNM has received a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Grant to construct two rainwater harvesting demonstration projects.
The major objective of the program is to create a project that demonstrates the importance of water and the need to conserve.
Basia Irland, a professor in the Department of Art and Art History, and Beverly Singer, director of the UNM Alfonso Ortiz Center for Intercultural Studies, will lead the $10,000 project which will be constructed at the Student Union Building reconstruction site on the UNM campus and Isleta Pueblo.
Irland said simple methods can be used to catch rainwater on rooftops and divert it to xeriscape gardens. These rainwater-harvesting techniques are not new, she said, but have been largely forgotten.
"By designing and implementing two demonstration projects, we can raise the level of consciousness about water conservation and educate the public about how they might create similar low-tech solutions," Irland said in a release.
The cultural and social significance of this project will focus on the diversity of ethnic groups by creating a traditional-use garden grown by the American Indian communities of the Southwest. Irland said this will reinforce the values and attitudes toward water conservation that have been lost through development within the urban landscape.
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The project will involve traditional healers, community members, physicians, anthropologists, hydrologists, architects, filmmakers, artists and community and regional planners.
The permanently installed project at the SUB will have rainwater runoffs to a garden with low-water use plants of the Southwest that have been traditionally used by American Indian and Hispanic elders. Information will be placed on the site to educate people about water and the plants. The signs also will include the plants' classifications. Irland will design and research the water feature and plants. She will contact specialists who will assist with the planning and construction of the rooftop water runoff system and the garden.
Singer will organize the community effort at Isleta Pueblo and work within the University and with outside specialists to organize meetings about the project. As part of the project, young students at an elementary school in Isleta Pueblo will learn ways to educate their community about water issues.
"By teaching water conservation techniques to the younger generations, hopefully this will help raise awareness of important issues, and they can then take leadership roles later in their life," Irland said in the release.
They will document the projects using video and photo archiving during each stage of the process and commentary from the participants. An educational handbook with water facts and information about each xeriscape plant will be published.
Funding for this project is underwritten by the Rockefeller Foundation and was one of only seven awarded nationally.
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