Cooling off water for irrigation

[expedition_retirement]

After leaving the desert, we headed towards the oasis town of Tozeur. But on the way, we made an unexpected stop near the town of Zaouia to learn about an interesting local irrigation solution. A deep well taps into a geothermally heated water reserve that brings up water at 80 degrees Celsius, which is much too hot to use for irrigation. To cool the water, they have constructed a tower that allows the water to drop several stories through filters of palm leaves that break the stream into smaller droplets, allowing it to cool. The water then flows into one of several pyramid shaped spirals that allow the water to further cool before it flows into canals that carry it out to the fields.

As we walked around the site, we saw a number of men bathing in the warm water. Some of them were also giving each other massages at the sides of the canals. Further down the canal, we found some women using the warm water to do laundry.

The entire site was an interesting engineering solution that made an otherwise problematic resource useable. And it showed how the local population takes advantage of that resource for their own purposes.