Water Security: Converting Ethiopian desert into hyper-productive land

Water Security is National Security

Water resources and how they are managed impact almost all aspects of society and the economy, in particular health, food production and security, domestic water supply and sanitation, energy, industry, and the functioning of ecosystems. Under present climate variability, water stress is already high, particularly in many developing countries, and climate change adds even more urgency for action. Without improved water resources management, the progress towards poverty reduction targets, the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development in all its economic, social and environ- mental dimensions, will be jeopardized. UN Water.Org

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Converting Ethiopian desert into hyper-productive land

Excerpts from Hope in a Changing Climate (www.open.edu Part I: Loess Plateau, China - youtu.be Part II: Ethiopia - youtu.be Part III: Rwanda - youtu.be Once the scene of devastating droughts in 1984, a few visionaries in Ethiopia have used Agroecological Natural Technology Solutions and Permaculture Design principles to begin bringing areas of arid land back to productivity and ecological balance. Restoring the huge vast degradaded landscape of Ethiopia... critical for the entire region to support life. The impact is regional, national, and international. We can rehabilitate damaged ecosystems. We can transfer technology and capital to empower the local people to restore their own environment to ensure food security for people who are chronically hungry, while at the same time sequestering carbon, reducing biodiversity loss, mitigate against flooding, drought and famine. This can be done on a global scale. We can do this with the simple application of Agricultural Natural Technology Solutions and Permaculture Design principles, such as earthworks, water harvesting, soil building, creating biodiversity.