Senegalese Ecovillage.

I was with a group who visited an Ecovillage. An ecovillage is a concept where a group "applies" for their town or village be designated an ecovillage. As such they have to work towards ecological sustainability. This means using renewable resources, cleaning up garbage, producing their own food and a number of other things. Here in Senegal these ecovillages can apply for microloans to help them achieve their goals.

We went to visit such a village. What a bus ride to get there. The last few kilometres was along a path where, had it not been for this being the dry season, we could not have made it.
What struck me first was how apparently "primitive" it was.

There were a few cement houses but here were far more straw huts. But it was very clean - unlike the rest of the country we have seen where there has been garbage absolutely everywhere. There were solar panels for electricity, each family had a solar cooker.

They also had high efficiency wood ovens for cooking. They were growing lots of vegetables using irrigation systems developed in France which were highly efficient. These consisted of either drip irrigation or containers placed flush in the ground which delivered water to the roots. Two litres of water would last for two days as opposed to two hours with traditional systems.

The people were so friendly and we had some great discussions with them in terms of what they needed. They were investigation obtaining a microloan so the discussion centered around what to apply for and how.

It was fscinating.

This is a papaya plant.