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Eritrea's Msilam Dam to bolster food security and change lives for the better
Farmer's Weekly
|September 22, 2023
Eritrea has limited fresh water: its erratic rainfall has left most of the country arid. This is a challenge for Eritreans who depend on agriculture and livestock for their livelihoods.
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But things are changing. In the space of three years, Eritrea harnessed local engineering talent and mobilised thousands of Eritreans, including students from the country’s technical and vocational schools, to build the Msilam Dam.
The dam has a capacity of 350 million cubic metres and provides clean water to the towns of Dekemhare, Debarwa, Mendefera.
The Eritrean government funded and built the Msilam Dam, located near the village of Gergera.
NATIONAL STRATEGY
In addition to increasing the availability of drinking water, the dam is now a catalyst for transformative livestock, agricultural, and industrial production as part of the country’s national strategy and sustainable development policy. Following this success, the country also built the Adi Halo Dam.
The Msilam Dam’s water is ideal for dairy farming. The area is now home to the Halhale Dairy Farm, part of an agro-processing facility for meat and dairy products. The farm covers 550ha and started with 660 cattle in 2017, which has increased.
Eritrea is now looking to trusted partners like the African Development Bank Group to scale up this innovative project.
This story is from the September 22, 2023 edition of Farmer's Weekly.
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