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After the Rhizel failed to flood for the first time in living memory, panic struck. With only the prior year’s modest reserves to fall back on, rationing was harsh—and barely enough to preserve planting stock. But out of the crisis emerged a shift in thinking: reliance on the natural cycle alone was too fragile for a growing population.
In response, a coalition of beet farmers, early engineers, and record-keepers formed what became the Council of Sustenance, tasked with:
- Building floodplain cisterns to store excess water from prior years
- Developing irrigation canals and gates to control and distribute water more precisely
- Constructing sealed grain vaults for long-term beet storage, including trials with drying, pickling, and fermenting
- Launching the Resilience Program: a public works project dedicated to innovation, even in times of plenty
This becomes the first major institutional investment in high-risk, low-immediate-reward research, viewed skeptically by some as wasteful but later credited with ensuring the island’s long-term survival.