I wrote this comment in support of Dawit's article. I am not sure if it appeared on Madote. His feeling of hope is exactly what I felt and was talking to you about.
Dawit
You have captured many peoples' feelings in your article. Certainly, that is exactly what I felt when I visited those two dam sites. I have never felt so much hope about the success of the country as I did this summer. Add to what you said projects as
the drip-irrigation that we read about yesterday, and that gives us a picture of what life for the Eritrean peasants is becoming. Already the villages in the area have changed so much from the ones I knew some years back. What they need is increase in income,
and that is going to come from the three-times-a-year harvesting, which has been experimented in Adi Halo with good results. Add to that the high yield from the irrigation, pest control, and use of fertilizers. I will bet that the per capita income of the
countryside with modern agriculture will be higher than the cities, except for the income of highly paid professionals. Shaebiya did it the Sahel way. BTW Gergera will provide drinking water for most of the SouthRegion- Dekemhare, Mendefera ...in addition
to irrigation.
Another amazing thing is the speed in building these dams. March 2014, digging had just started and I stood on the ground that is now covered with water. I have the pictures with dates as proof. See what happened in two years!!!!
Another dam I visited was Gahtelai/Damas. Construction has just started. When completed it will irrigate thousands of acres of land and provide drinking water for Massawa and surrounding area. Massawa will then be real 'pearl of the Red Sea.'
Many of the dam sites also have their own electric power generators, which supply electricity to the area.
The biggest of the dams in Eritrea is Kerkebet. So far it has accumulated around 200 million meter cubes of water, with a capacity to go much higher than that. I call that dam the Eritrean Aswan Dam.
The land around each dam is carefully analyzed for its suitability for different crops. Incidentally, Eritrea's economic development zones are divided into three zones: the Eastern lowland and coastal area, the central highlands, and the western lowland.
These zones have their own characteristics giving the country rich diversity
We haven't even talked about the mining sector, which will bring billions of dollars revenue to the country, the construction sector with all the pent-up demand for housing, the private sector .... Eritrea will experience economic boom that was not seen
before. One also reads about the availability of petroleum and natural gas... I envy the young Eritreans that I saw out in force on the streets of Asmara during the independence anniversary celebrations. The future is theirs. The young professionals are visible
wherever action is taking place -- engineers, doctors, professionals of all kinds. I am not talking about the valiant members of the Eritrean Defence Force.
Eritrea will be the beacon of hope on the Red Sea - the proverbial stone that was despised by the masons but became the cornerstone.
Berhe
Sent from my iPad
