Like an oasis within the midst of the limitless Mauritanian desert stands an evocation of greenery and hope: Maaden el Ervane, prepare on concepts of communal life and sustainability. It bears witness to the great imaginative and prescient of its founder; the Sufi non secular data Mohammed Lemina Sidina.
It’s a neighborhood that, from 1975, has gone from a distant piece of fertile land to a full-fledged village, mocking the hostile conditions of the desert.
Foundation of Maaden el Ervane
MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP by the use of Getty Photos
It was correct from the beginning that Sidina had a clear imaginative and prescient: a neighborhood the place equality, fraternity, tolerance, and exhausting work weren’t beliefs nonetheless a way of life.
The village, whose title means “the deposit of knowledge,” is an open-air monument to a preacher who died over 20 years previously.
With these traits, it is seen in residents like Djibril Niang who, 50 years once more, traveled from Senegal to make an interracial marriage with Sidina’s daughter-once thought-about a extremely unthinkable act; he says.
“There’s equality. No caste, no race… We’re all brothers.” The each day lifetime of the neighborhood goes in collective decision-making and power, the place every evening is spent planning for what work should be carried out the following day, whether or not or not or not it is digging a properly, making a avenue, or planting a palm tree.
It is by the use of this spirit of cooperation {{that a}} small dam has been constructed, fields had been common, and a school along with a neighborhood clinic had been set as a lot as make Madden self-sufficient.
Sustainable practices and thriving agriculture
Maaden was was a inexperienced paradise by Maaden’s dedication to sustainable agriculture. Chemical fertilizers had been displaced by compost launched in by pure farming strategies launched by Pierre Rabhi, whereas fuel-powered motor pumps had been turned picture voltaic applications.
The arable lands throughout the village proceed in order so as to add up, helped by the wind that clears off the sand from fields, naturally making room for tomato, pepper, carrot, onion, and watermelon cultivation
.Turning to a farmer like Mohamed Ould Vaide, who reveals off the harvest from the drip irrigation technique that he used, one then realizes how good it is that he was taught the strategy. “I’ll in no way depart Maaden. There isn’t any place desire it,” he says.
The train of agriculture has put Maaden into the limelight, and now, many villages that inhabit the neighborhood not have members, nonetheless Maaden continues to have friends.In conclusion time, Maaden el Ervane is an entire completely totally different one factor, a village, a model for the long term.
Of us at Maaden el Ervane reside with nature, they reside with each other. Exhibiting that even throughout the very coronary coronary heart of the desert, an oasis is perhaps inexperienced, and through reasonably greater than crops, equality could breed life increased.
The village adopted composting, a pure system of recycling decomposed pure provides proper right into a rich soil additive.
Maaden el Ervane has modified the utilization of chemical fertilizers with compost. It does not solely restore the soil however moreover nourishes it once more with essential nutritional vitamins.
Plus, it reduces the harmful environmental impacts often associated to those merchandise.
One different important innovation is the flexibility sources for the irrigation applications using picture voltaic panels.
This fashion, the village, which had its irrigation applications powered by motor pumps using fuel, is saved from it. Saving them from their carbon footprints and saving them from rising relying on non-renewable sources of vitality.
Drip Irrigation Strategy
Drip irrigation is an environment friendly watering system the place the roots of the crops acquire water immediately.
This experience helps protect water and ensures that every drop of the liquid reaches the crops throughout the precise quantity that is required by their progress.
That could be very environment friendly throughout the arid environments typical of the desert of Mauritania, the place every drop of water counts.
Henna Grinding Machine for Ladies’s Empowerment
Along with, there was an extra provide of income for the women of Maaden el Ervane by the use of the introduction of a henna grinding machine.
As soon as they weren’t of their cottage industries, tilling, or shopping for and promoting, they could apply themselves to the remedy of the native henna plant to make cosmetics. That not solely tremendously supported the village’s financial system however moreover empowered girls in monetary phrases.
These are pure farming methods which have made Maaden el Ervane a hub of environmentalism, amongst totally different concepts, inside this pioneering thought dropped at this village by Pierre Rabhi, a French pioneer of pure farming.
They’ve made regardless of property that the village has had agriculturally conducive whereas remaining devoted to sustainability.
