From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Jul 12 2010 - 20:26:06 EDT
http://www.ifrc.org/docs/news/10/10071201/index.asp
*Eritrea: bringing hope to drought-prone communities
**12 July 2010
By Robert Fraser, IFRC, in Anseba region, Eritrea*
At the bottom of a steep, dry and rocky ravine, which can only be
reached after climbing down a precipitous path, a dedicated group of
community and Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers are building a dam.
The team, supported by the government, is working seven days a week to
complete the first phase before the next rains commence.
“Our water tables are dropping by as much as one metre every year due to
climate change,” explained government engineer Zeregaber Hidrai. “We have to
capture our limited rains before they run down to the sea.” *
Naturally filtered*
To achieve this, a series of ‘check dams’ are being built to slow down the
flow of water while the sand-storage dam under construction will store the
water that is washed down every rainy season. It is not a new technology,
but an effective one as water trapped in the sand does not evaporate,
becomes naturally filtered and can then be channelled by gravity to more
than 10,000 people who live downstream.
”We are using local materials as much as possible, cutting stone blocks by
hand from the hard granite at the bottom of the ravine so we only need to
bring cement and pipes to complete the dam and distribution system,”
explained Michael Bahta, a Red Cross Society of Eritrea engineer from the
Anseba Branch who coordinates this activity, part of a nationwide project
supported by the European Union, the Netherlands, Danish and Austrian Red
Cross societies, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC).
”It is difficult to predict exactly how much water we will be able to
produce eventually from this dam, but we are already producing more than
170,000 litres per day,” notes project manager Yisehak Kiflay, who is in
charge of a wide range of activities throughout the country including
solar-powered pumping systems, piped water supplies, borehole construction,
terracing and tree planting as well as crucial sanitation and hygiene
promotion activities.
*Adapting to climate change*
“We are adapting to the effects of climate change, and integrate our water
and sanitation activities with other on-going projects to better serve the
most vulnerable communities,” explains Mrs Nura Mohammed Omer, Secretary
General of the Red Cross Society of Eritrea. “The key is also encouraging
community participation and volunteering in every aspect from the planning,
implementation and final hand-over to ensure sustainability.”
A total of 121 communities have been targeted for community-led total
sanitation, a participatory process that leads communities to declare “open
defecation free” status after encouraging simple family latrine construction
to address the low sanitation coverage prevalent in rural areas.
Women often lead this process in the community. One such women’s group
proudly showed us the latrines they had built at their homes and explained
that, as many in the group are head of household, “improving sanitation
using locally-available materials is one of our key priorities”.
*Sustainable activities*
The project in Eritrea is one of more than a hundred projects that fall
under the IFRC’s ten-year Global Water and Sanitation Initiative (2005 to
2015) that aims to encourage National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
to increase sustainable activities to further contribute to the achievement
of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
”The Red Cross Society of Eritrea is the prime implementer of this project,
but working in an effective partnership with communities, government and the
other partners under the overall umbrella of the IFRC adds value to the
process,” IFRC country representative Ahmed Suleman explained.
“Coordinating such a partnership can have its challenges, but we have
successfully brought all the elements together and now see significant
results in meeting the long-term needs of vulnerable communities in Eritrea
and look forward to sharing our experience, both technically and in project
design, with other such projects in arid countries in Africa.”
[image: At the bottom of the ravine, community volunteers provide the
labour and local materials for the dam construction, with supervision from
Red Cross Red Crescent engineers. (p-ERI0001)]
*At the bottom of the ravine, community volunteers provide the labour and
local materials for the dam construction, with supervision from Red Cross
Red Crescent engineers. (p-ERI0001)
*
*RELATED LINKS*
*Global Water and Sanitation Initiative
<https://mail.google.com/what/health/water/gwsi.asp>*
*More news stories <https://mail.google.com/news/index.asp>*
*The community provides food for the volunteers, both young and
old, who are providing the labour for the construction, working seven days a
week to complete the work before the onset of the rainy season. (p-ERI0002)
*
*Joint planning is undertaken with engineers from both government and
the Red Cross Red Crescent, in consultation with community leaders.
(p-ERI0003)
*
*A large-scale solar-powered pump is one of several being used in
other Red Cross Red Crescent water supply systems as an appropriate
alternative to diesel-powered pumping systems. (p-ERI0004)
*
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