Dam helps Guinean women advance
During the dry period in the Guinean Saraya women bravely try to make ends meet through vegetable cultivation. Their weak social position and the low groundwater level makes their lives difficult. Trias provides in a better water management.
© Trias
Since 2008 Trias is working in the region Saraya, the poorest area in Guinea. Sixty percent of the population lives on less than 1 euro per day. Especially the Guinean women live in dire conditions. They barely have any say in their situation and can only cultivate land when the men (the owners) do not need it. This often means that women can only use the land in the dry season. During this period women must erect fences to keep the cattle away and dig wells to irrigate the land. Towards the end of the dry season, the water level sinks deeper into the ground, so they can barely reach it.
Therefore Trias has decided to commit itself to help these active women in Saraya. Together with partner organisation RGTA-DI. Trias takes action to make the land suitable for agriculture and to provide a better water management. Besides digging wells, Trias and RGTA-DI have built a new dam using EU-grants.
In the past the population of Saraya could already use a dam to influence the groundwater level. This dam dates from the colonial times and was erected with forced labor. In that time, the colonial rulers were able to irrigate their tobacco fields during the dry season. After the independence in 1958 the population has acquired the dam to use and maintain it for decades. In the mean time the capacity of the dam became insufficient. A new dam was necessary.
A few hundred meters upstream a new dam has been built recently. “The dam ensures a higher groundwater level, thus enhancing the possibility for rice cultivation in the wet period and vegetable cultivation in the dry period”, explains Bert Snoek, regional coordinator of Trias in Guinea. “The dam made it possible to cultivate fields that, due to poor water management, were impossible to cultivate for over 40 years. In total this new dam ensures rice cultivation on a surface of 1000 hectares.”
“This result shows that building the dam was worth the investments made”, says Snoek. “The population is thrilled and now has access to sufficient water, even until the end of the dry season. To ensure that the Guinean women benefit from the improved water management, Trias demands that the women associations have access to at least 25% of the cultivated land”, says Snoek.
Furthermore the Guinean farmers, with help form Trias and its local partner organisations, have access to micro credits, advice and training to enhance agricultural production and processing after the harvest. This way, Trias hopes to contribute to the development of the Guinean famers and in particular strengthen the position of women in the society.