If the levees in New Orleans had been stabilized with vetiver a number of them would not have breached, because vetiver would have stopped the erosion of the inside wall of the levee. In Vietnam those sea levees that were stabilized with vetiver withstood the strongest typhoons in 70 years, thus saving tens of thousands of hectares of land from being flooded. Research has also shown that vetiver when used on the outside banks of Vietnam sea levees reduced wave run-up, resulting in the reduction of levee height and thus saving 10% of the without vetiver cost - when a levee costs $1 million per km, this is a big saving. As a result of these early applications, all Vietnam sea levees are to be protected with vetiver.
Indian irrigation departments would annually save crores of rupees for canal maintenance if they used vetiver for canal and drain bank stabilization.
The Vetiver Network International has just published five new manual/handbooks on the Vetiver System. Each contains over 102 full color images of actual applications. These manuals are available at amazon.com. You can also download them at no cost from:
Vetiver System handbooks published June 2008 eSnips Folder
They are worth the time that they take to download. Vetiver is an native Indian grass - Use it!!!
Dick Grimshaw