Preventing climate disaster in Africa: Eritrea leads the way

As what is mainly a western caused climate disaster continues to hammer Africa, with tens of millions facing famine and starvation in the Horn of Africa, the small, underdeveloped country of Eritrea is leading the fight to prevent this from happening.

Eritrea is doing this by aggressively carrying out water conservation by building water reservoirs, both small and large. Over 800 and counting in the last 15 years including 9 large reservoirs, massive even, holding billions of tons of water. Breaking the ago old dependency on rain fed irrigation is key to this with water conservation being the key to food security through modern irrigation techniques. This while Eritrea has been hammered by illegal US/UNjust sanctions and record breaking droughts.

We lived in Eritrea from 2006 to 2021 and saw first-hand the rapid rate of water conservation. Alongside water conservation the critical task of soil conservation through terracing and reforestation is taking place, for without both these new water reservoirs will quickly fill up with silt, making them far less effective.

In 2008-2009 Eritrea experienced the second back-to-back drought in history, the first being in 2003-2004, with the rain fed harvest completely failing throughout the country. Eritrea’s response, led hands on by the Eritrean President Issias Aferwerki was to divert a major part of the countries limited resources into water reservoir construction.

The results have been clear for all to see and African leaders including the president of Djibouti and the prime minister of Ethiopia have both been given guided tours. Today Eritrea is almost food secure in the critical area of cereal staple crops like wheat, barley, sorghum and millet. Eritrea no longer imports almost any fruit or vegetables and is progressing towards self-sufficiency in processed products like cooking oil based on canola production.

To understand the accomplishment this is you must know the history of what can only be described as an environmental holocaust that was inflicted on Eritrea during the modern period of colonialism.

In the 1880s when the first colonialists invaded and subjugated the Eritrean people, the Italians, Eritrea was almost 1/3 forested. By the time the last colonial power, the Ethiopians, were driven from Eritrea and the country became fully liberated, less than 2% of Eritrea was forested.

From almost 1/3 of the country being forested to less than 2% forested in less than a century constitutes an environmental catastrophe than I have been unable to find anywhere else in the world.

When Eritrea became independent in 1991 its leaders had to begin rebuilding the country not from zero but from far below zero.

So for today’s Eritrea in 30 years to become almost completely food self-sufficient is a powerful role model for the rest of Africa. And remember, this is in a country wracked by major drought as well as being invaded by the TPLF terrorist regime in Ethiopia in 2000 where some 40% of the Eritrean people, 1.5 million, were driven from their homes and farms with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The lesson that needs to be learned for all Africans is that food security is national security and critical towards not just a countries survival but for its independence and ability to grow and prosper for western bankster institutions like the World Bank, whose policy is in opposition to food security, and  the IMF, are determined to keep Africans poor, debt ridden with predatory loans, and on their knees begging for their survival from the very western bankster criminals that caused their problems in the first place.

Eritrea is not only about to be completely food secure but is the ONLY country in Africa NOT to accept predatory loans from the western banksters like the IMF and World Bank. Food secure, financially and politically independent, with the rest of Africa becoming increasingly aware of this small but powerful “threat of a good example”, it isn’t a coincidence that the LiarsForHire in the western MSM alongside their cohorts in the Human Rights Mob are going berserk in their efforts to demonize what remains the way forward towards the very survival of the African people as western caused climate disaster continues to menace the continent.

Thomas C. Mountain attended Punahou School for six years some half a dozen years before “Barry O’Bombers” time there. He has been living and writing from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached at thomascmountain at g_ mail_ dot _com