[2017] ETHIOPIA

                         & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR

9115 OU38 - Ethiopia -- Terraforming

One special aspect of our vacation with the aid workers in Ethiopia was looking at the work being done in Tigray to minimise the problem of drought. Thus, many years ago, Tigray had been forested and had a microclimate which encouraged rain. Thereafter, the forest had been cut down -- usually as a means of impoverishing the population in times of war. Accordingly, Tigray was a country which received reasonable amounts of rain in the rainy season, from August to September, but immediately lost this water. The rain which fell on the land immediately ran down the hillsides into the rivers, where it caused floods. In the process it also eroded the fertile soil of the fields and washed it downstream as the Blue Nile. Within a matter of weeks of the rains the countryside was parched again.

The government had instituted two schemes in Tigray, both of which we saw examples of. The first of these was the idea of terracing. Thus government had suggested, in agreement with all the local communities in Tigray, that they terrace the fields -- right up to the top of the mountains which were over 10,000 feet high. The water falling on these terraces would, therefore, not run away immediately but would be retained for the growing season. Moreover, on the higher terraces they were to plant trees, typically the eucalyptus which was dominant tree in Ethiopia -- having been brought from Australia. These trees were in turn to start to create a new microclimate

The method of terracing was very simple, but required large amounts of organisation. Thus, the villagers went out into the fields and at suitable positions across the fields built stone walls; using the stones that had been exposed by previous rains on the fields. When the rains came next time they again washed the earth from the fields, as they always had, but this time this was stopped by the new wall. The rain also exposed more rocks and the following year the villagers again took those rocks and added them to the height of the wall. Thus, by progressive steps of mud being washed down and the stones being built into the walls, the fields were progressively terraced. It is an amazingly easy way of terracing fields, one which had been learnt from experiments elsewhere in Africa.

The real achievement in Tigray was the scale of the operation. Within four or five years of starting the project almost all of Tigray -- covering a landmass about the same as the whole of England -- was terraced in this way - right up to the top of the mountains. It was immense achievement, just in terms of getting the people involved.

We went to see an example of this sort of terracing. Apart from the number of people involved, it was simple, and unpretentious. When we got to a field that still had to be terraced, we discovered several hundred people there -- brought in from not just one village but from all the surrounding villages. Most of them were collecting stones from across the field and then transporting them to the wall. Rather fewer of them were actually building the wall, this since this needed slightly more expertise.

The most expert job, though, was laying out the path of the wall at the right height contour, since this had to be level across quite a distance. A number of the villagers had been trained, in affect, as surveyors, though with the simplest of instruments; often just a hosepipe full of water. But, across Tigray province, thousands of walls were built to the right contour; and the province was terraced as planned. The most impressive thing, though, was the way that everyone was enjoying this. It was certainly quite hard labour, but not backbreaking. More important, everyone seemed to be having fun, chatting amongst themselves or singing. It was almost like a picnic. Ecology, saving the world, doesn't have to be miserable.

As we drove around Ethiopia, though, we used to see - morning and evening - the hills filled with literally thousands of people walking across to help their neighbours terrace their fields. It was an amazing sight to see so many thousands of people walking across the mountains.

The second set of schemes was to build reservoirs. This was more difficult, since the location had to be right, and there was even more effort involved. We were taken to one such site. The dam at ther heart of the reservoir was several hundred feet long, across a valley. It was due to be something like 30 or 40 feet high, made of earth fill. In the west this would have taken just a few weeks with large earth movers. In Ethiopia it was taking months of work with people literally carrying soil in baskets on their heads. They weren't even using mules to carry the soil. When we went there, there must have been between 2,000 and 3,000 people - men women and children -carrying the baskets backwards and forwards.

It quite literally was like a scene from the Bible.

Once again, there were experts making sure that the core of the dam, to be made out of impervious clay, was bedded down properly; but everything else was undertaken by those thousands of people carrying the earth in baskets or even just in pieces of plastic.

As I say, it was awe-inspiring.

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