How severe is the shortage of water in the scrub plains of northern Somali Regional state?
Jose Tamarit: The shortage is severe, although during the rainy season that might not be apparent. I witnessed flash floods in river beds in the region following heavy rain storms. These floods create massive water courses which carve their way across the plains sweeping up everything in their path. But as the name suggests these are floods which form and then disappear quite quickly. Our challenge is to harvest and then store this water so it can be used during the long dry season. Q: How is this done? JT: In this particular case the European Commission’s humanitarian aid department (ECHO) funded the building of a sub-surface or sand dam in the dry riverbed. A small stone wall has been built from one side of the river to the other and behind it instead of a reservoir of water there is just sand. When the river floods water is collected and stored in and below this sandy expanse; the water, which is muddy and full of debris when it flows into the sub-surface dam, is filtered by the san
