Sustainable land management project spin-offs
- population census
- humanitarian de-mining
- solar power promotion
- geographic information
system (GIS)
- regional and local
planning and development
1 Population Census
For the first National Population Census the partnership provided
large-scale maps derived from satellite imaging for the country’s 17
major towns. Authorities also use this cartographic base in urban planning
for construction of roads, water supply and sewage stations, and for
mapping electricity grids.
This portion of the project was funded by the United Nations, with
the National Office of Statistics as local partner; these satellite
pictures demonstrated how remote-sensing instruments are useful in map
making.
2 Humanitarian
De-mining
The UN-funded Landmine Impact Survey asked the project to prepare
a nationwide map base for humanitarian de-mining.
3 Solar Power Promotion
The solar water heater project, initiated in the late 1990s, is now
completely in the hands of the Swiss development organization Oekozentrum
Langenbruck and its Eritrean partners. In 2002, a project sponsored
workshop helped strengthen construction capabilities, with local first
run of a small commercial units series in 2003. The project has orders
for the solar power units from hospitals, vocational schools, and local
Non-Government Organizations.
4 Geographic
Information Systems (GIS)
Activities in capacity building have their focus at the University
of Asmara, where Eritrea’s only GIS Laboratory for sustainable land
management has been established. Beginning in 2002, it is meeting the
needs of both students and government, including on-the-job training
for administrative staff.
5 Regional
and Local Planning and Development
In 2002, we also supported several small community-based projects:
- at Afdeyu, rural electrification was installed through cost sharing
arrangements with the community and the government. Over 50% of households,
mainly subsistence farmers, have applied for private connection to
the grid to date;
- with financial help from Swiss Humanitarian Aid the project hired
a private firm to expedite the delayed construction of a small dam
at Afdeyu; and
- together with local government, Eritrean NGOs, and
UNICEF, we supported several other smaller local projects,
mainly for improvement of village water supplies.
In each of these cases, the SLM program chiefly provides
expertise or “seed money” to close the final or minor
financial gaps faced by development projects.
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