Current Events > Africa to build a 'great wall' to 'help stop immigration' but there's a twist!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Can a mighty 'green wall' of trees transform sub-Saharan Africa, hold back the desert, reverse climate change and put a stop to the waves of migration to Europe? ? Joe Shute meets the people betting $8 billion on it.

Lake Chad, which spanned 9,652 square miles in 1963, has shrunk by an estimated 90 per cent in recent decades. Climate change is to blame in particular, say experts, with population growth and unplanned irrigation also contributing to what the United Nations Environment Programme calls an ecological disaster one fuelled by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, which 10 years ago sprang up in the Lake Chad basin.

The ongoing conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced an estimated 2.5 million people in the region. Families who for generations depended on the lake to sustain them now languish in front of a horizon of sand.

Today, in holes dug into the sand and lined with goat poo, they are planting seeds of acacia, desert date, guava, citron and mango trees.

In five years the sand has come so quickly towards our crops, explains Mbodou Mahamat, who is president of the villages agriculture scheme. Our community has been here for 400 years and now we are watching the lake go down. Im afraid if there is no water then we will die. We hope these trees will protect us.

This plantation of a few thousand trees is part of something that it is hoped will grow to become a new wonder of the world: a Great Green Wall spanning almost 5,000 miles from coast to coast, across more than 20 countries.

By 2030 the ambition of the project is to restore 250 million acres of degraded land and bring security to one of the most impoverished regions on earth; stemming conflict and stopping the mass migration to Europe witnessed in recent years.

Full Article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/great-green-wall/


The twist is that the wall is made of trees and it's to encourage people to stay, not to stop others from coming in

The full article is long but worth reading
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The first thing to do is hunt down all the warlords and put them in an arena where they will fight
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What's to stop ISIS from stomping on the baby trees?

Also, trees need water, no?

HiddenRoar posted...

Also, trees need water, no?

Hence why they needed 8 billion dollars.



As with other Great Green Wall projects, money was paid to villagers to plant the trees, and they were provided with a water source to maintain the garden in this case a borehole regulated to release only 200 litres a month to irrigate the crops. (Boreholes provide limited temporary solutions they involve drilling down into the desert to tap into the water table and extract water from the earth.

However, the water is pumped out using a diesel engine, so they are expensive to run. Also, with no rain coming in, they need to be regulated strictly so they dont completely dry out the water table before it has time to replenish.)

Villagers say the project has had a transformative effect. We grow vegetables to feed our families and to sell for money, says Jamilatou Ka, a 30-year-old mother of four children. Weve even opened a bank account that people can borrow money from. It makes money, takes me out of the house and gives me freedom.

Fifteen-year-olds Kadiatou Diallo, Aissata Diallo and Fatimata Ba say working in the garden kept them in school. Of course this gives us more options, says Fatimata. Once we have finished our studies we dont want to go anywhere else. We want to stay in the village and practise all of our knowledge here.
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Inb4LakeChadjokes
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Has an environmental impact study been completed, examining the effects of using a diesel engine to pump out water?

HiddenRoar posted...

Has an environmental impact study been completed, examining the effects of using a diesel engine to pump out water?

They've been doing that in Africa for over a decade so I fucking hope so.
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But will somebody bless the rains?
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DirkDiggles posted...

But will somebody bless the rains?

No

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82nqsksBH7M" data-time="
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UnfairRepresent posted...

The twist is that the wall is made of trees and it's to encourage people to stay, not to stop others from coming in

So "Africa" wants to be a prison?
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The_Bottom_Line posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

The twist is that the wall is made of trees and it's to encourage people to stay, not to stop others from coming in

So "Africa" wants to be a prison?

Yes one of those notorious prisons that spends 8 billion dollars encouraging prisoners to stay instead of walking off.

Did you even think before you posted that?
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UnfairRepresent posted...

Yes one of those notorious prisons that spends 8 billion dollars encouraging prisoners to stay instead of walking off.

Did you even think before you posted that?

"Walls to keep people in"

Her durr don't you think before post stoopid?
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The_Bottom_Line posted...

UnfairRepresent posted...

Yes one of those notorious prisons that spends 8 billion dollars encouraging prisoners to stay instead of walking off.

Did you even think before you posted that?

"Walls to keep people in"

Her durr don't you think before post stoopid?

....

The trees will not literally block anyone from leaving
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