Inside the UN’s Massive Lake Project in Africa
At the Sahara's edge, man made dykes now hold back the flood waters.
This soaks the basins' bottoms, making fertile soils & recharging the local water tables.
The resulting lakes are designed to dry slowly, leaving behind well-soaked land & Rich organic materials.
These allow for year-round farming.
But, every drop of rain must be easily collected during the 3-month Rainy Season!
So the land can grow crops during the 9-month Dry Season...
Several unique African sites are testing how large these lakes can be grown...
And, the UN's World Food Program has been attacking hunger at its roots - thru these very projects.
Deep in Chad, a large dyke crosses a whole valley floor.
The lake behind it is fed by thousands of desert hill streams, making for a year round water source.
To build the dyke, over 1,000 villagers worked - by hand & without any electric machinery!!
In truth, only 2% of Chad has any power at all!
But, water alone doesn't solve all of the problems here.
As there's no pumps nor pipes to move any liquid & everything is totally off of the Grid.
Village life is low tech: with mud huts, wood fed fires & chasing after lost animals.
This marginal lifestyle depends upon living off of the land.
And, that's why they're now trying Receding Agriculture - planting seeds at the edge of the drying up lake.
That's a rich, well-soaked soil that responds well to farming!
A fertile 3,000 new hectares of usable land that lasts deep into the Dry Season.
Before this project, people generally ran out of water...
The 2nd site was completely abandoned to desertification!
But, its transformation is nothing short than a scientific miracle!!
They've now got 1,000 hectares of food producing & reusable land.
They built three lakes in a row, with receding farmland & a supercharged aquifer - creating a huge source of water.
The effort raised the water levels of surrounding wells - allowing farmers to irrigate large areas for crop production.
Even folk that lived downstream, out- side of the project, are now benefiting from the higher water table!
To complicate things, they also worked on slowing water before it reaches the valley.
This saves some flood waters to collect in side basins - for later use.
Here, food production is becoming more sophisticated - just by adding composted materials to the mix!
Their crops are now healthier & fruit trees were intermingled thruout this area - including a rich mango breed.
Finally, at a massive rain catchment 'system', the size of this technique was truly scaled up.
A series of dykes were built following the landscape's contours & sectioned off to maximize grain production areas.
An overflow canal redirects high flood waters down to a large pond - outside the village!
This allows for personal food gardens & better flood control - which saves more soil from being washed away.
Integrated water design is meant to make people's lives more resilient - thru their own work.
They recreate a strength in the land that survives most climate, political & economic pain points!!
Along the way, they learn to create a stable resource base - at a scale where food is abundant, ground water is restored & erosion is minimized.
The resulting crops stabilize household finances & women - especially - were lifted out of poverty.
So, now, the Chadian government wants to expand the project - to 5 million hectares of arable land - by 2030!!
A massive solution for the most vulnerable people on Earth!
And people are ready to transform deserts, create lush fruit yards & help feed their communities...
Then, the video becomes an ad for the Oregon State U Permaculture class.
