In Northern Somalia, sustained conflict, recurrent drought, immense charcoal burning, water trucking and overgrazing are only some of the factors that have led to significant deterioration of rangeland and livestock conditions in most pastoral areas. Over time, vegetation has been depleted and many previously vegetated areas have turned into deserts, becoming unproductive. Intense water trucking has led to the formation of large tracks that become streams during the rainy season and further drain water from the rangelands. This environmental depletion has also led to the formation of numerous gullies, some of which form cliffs that can measure anywhere between 30m and 100m in height. Combined, these realities have undermined pastoralists’ and vulnerable small scale farmers’ ability to sustain their traditional livelihoods and their capacity to quickly recover from environmental shocks.
Based on our firm belief that communities are best placed to find solutions to the problems that affect their livelihoods, we have worked closely with communities in the Sannag and Mudug regions of Northern Somalia to reduce vulnerability to chronic food insecurity by rehabilitating community assets such as water sources, feeder roads, and rangeland areas. Combined with the provision of local seeds for fodder production, rehabilitation of water sources, and provision of cash relief, this has allowed households to limit the adverse effects of the numerous hazards affecting their livelihoods.
Through Cash-for-Work (CFW) activities, communities have focused on rehabilitating their livelihood assets, including rangelands. Specifically, land rehabilitation activities have sought to restore the rangeland back to its natural glory where communities can cohabit more easily, reducing resource-based conflicts, and restoring balance to the ecosystem. In practice, interventions have included: gully control structures; rock dams; drains; earth check dams; and soil earth bands.
Around the town of Elbuh, community members constructed a 2km long, 4m wide and 1m high rock dam to slowdown the runoff of water and increase the time for water infiltration into the ground. Rock dams are simple in nature and made of medium to heavy stones placed in a systematic manner to reverse and avoid destruction caused by floods and create the conditions needed for plants, shrubs and small trees to germinate. In this particular case, an area which had turned into a desert has now become a settlement and grazing area for pastoralists during the dry spell.
Meanwhile, in Kulmiye, communities put in place gully terraces and rock dams that eventually filled and restored a 22m deep and 2km wide gully. Today, when visiting the area, you can see farmers cultivating their vegetables and fruits, allowing them recover their lost livelihoods.
Given the realities of the funding system, or environment, in Somalia at the time, we used humanitarian funding, through Cash-for-Work, to undertake DRR activities, as an innovative way to contribute to longer-term development goals. The rehabilitation of rangeland and the harvesting of rainwater reduce the risks experienced from droughts and harsh dry spells, including the loss of livestock and livelihood assets, and increase water retention, vegetation, grazing land, and water access for livestock. When these livelihood assets are depleted, these communities become destitute and depend on emergency aid – something our interventions are trying to reverse.
Communities actively took part in the process of restoring their natural environment, earned income while doing so, and are now better able to cope with hazards and future environmental shocks. Through the Somalia Emergency Response Project, an estimated 40,000 people have benefited from these interventions.
The Somalia Emergency Response Project was implemented from May 2010 to September 2012, and funded by the United States Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).