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http://ec.europa.eu/echo/aid/stories/middle_east21_en.htm
Aid in Action
Algeria
“My desert vegetable garden …”
A Sahrawi refugee tells how he has succeeded in “cultivating” the desert
DAHKLA – “The well? I dug it by hand. It took me two long months of hard work with a hammer and a metal spike”. Mohammad Abdallahi Elouali is very proud to show us his garden with its tomatoes, onions, peppers and a few melons. A real vegetable garden in the middle of the desert!
“I started to work the soil about a year ago. It was vital, as our food is very poor in vitamins and I had no money to buy fruit and vegetables. My idea was to eat what we needed and to sell the rest to earn a little money. Digging the well was the most difficult part, as I had to break the rock piece by piece”.
Mohammed, 45, has six children who all go to school. He has lived in the desert for 31 years. He has returned to his village only once during that time – a visit which lasted only five days. Since 1976, Algeria has accommodated the Sahrawi refugees who are installed in the region of Tindouf, in the heart of the desert. The climate is arid and the temperatures are extreme. Access to basic services – shelter, healthcare, water, education – is extremely limited, which means that life is very hard. Yet this population in exile has progressively organised itself. Today, they are split up into four refugee camps: Smara, Layoun, Ausserd and Dakhla. The latter is the camp which lies the furthest from Tindouf (at 160 km, with 60 km of track) and 800 km from the nearest city. In Dahkla, contrary to the other camps, access to water is less problematic.
“Here” says Mohammed, “the soil is quite fertile under the sand. I can draw water and irrigate my garden. Put a motor-pump on my well? Even if someone could bring me one from abroad, nobody here could make repairs if it broke down. There are no spare parts, and no-one qualified to do repair work. Besides, we have very little electricity here…”.
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