Water transforming lives

CAFOD volunteer Mike Coote visited Ethiopia to meet communities involved in water conservation schemes. [CAFOD]

Mike Coote visits Tigray, Ethiopia, and meets people in an area which has benefited from a water conservation project run by CAFOD partner the Relief Society of Tigray (REST)

Unlike the dusty images from TV reports of the various droughts that affect the area, the scenery was majestic - rolling hills with multi-coloured patches of the differing crops grown there.

The silence was overwhelming. The tinnitus of industrial noise was absent, leaving only the sounds of people chatting, children playing and animals for miles around.

Water all year round

I talked to Nigisti, a single mum and her 10 year old son, Gidey. Their lives have been transformed by the project I had been inspecting as they now had pure water, on tap, only half an hour’s walk from their little hut.

Their land was irrigated all year round allowing them to grow a wide variety of crops that enhanced their income potential.

Compare this to their life two years ago. A daily walk of up to two hours each way to collect water, from an unreliable stream and of very dubious purity, dominated their struggle for survival.

They could only grow the basic local wheat crop – and in a good year this was in plentiful supply so the price they could attract was low.

In a bad year, when the rainfall was low, the crop usually failed leaving them dependent on food handouts.

The project has provided local people with the expertise to develop a system of dams that trapped the heavy rainfall that usually occurs during a short window each year.

The system fed the water into an underground aquifer, from which a spring delivered the water back into a stream. By tapping into the spring below ground a supply of pure water was piped to the taps used by Nigisti.

The stream, that now runs all year, was used for irrigation, washing and for the animals to drink.

This was just one example of many I saw where the provision of a secure water supply, together with education on how to exploit it, has released the determination and innovation of communities, empowering them to make much more of their lives.

New crops and products

In Dire Dawa, a similar water conservation project had enabled farmers to grow potatoes, supplying much of the local market directly, as well as fellow farmers further afield, with seed potatoes for their own crop.

I joined a workshop developing new products for tomato crops, which are exceeding local demand. The plan is to produce tomato paste, designed to match local recipes, thereby offering added value over imported pastes.

Two things struck me hard; how relatively little money was needed to deliver such enormous changes in people’s lives, and the dedication of the local Ethiopian staff - people who, having enjoyed the benefits of a good education, committed themselves to improving the lives of their fellow countrymen.

There is a community and family cohesion far beyond that which we now see in our own country, built from a mutual need to survive and a common determination to share the benefits of their life improvements fairly.

My final memories are of how happy the people I met were with just the simple things of life which we take for granted – we have much to learn from them as well.

Mike has written a book about his visit, called "Does our money really help?"
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This article was first published in The Catholic Times in November 2007

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