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Project Description
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Project Description
Gerger is a village within Geleb Sub-region of Anseba Regional Administration. It is located 35 km north east of Keren town and 125 km north of Asmara, the capital. The surrounding of Gerger village is hilly landscape and lies within the range of 1,600 to 2, 600 meters above sea level with average annual rainfall of 500mm. The inhabitants of the village have major land degradation challenges. Due to the hilly nature of the landscape surrounding the village and the adjacent farmland, soil erosion during the rainy season is tremendous and thus flash floods cause gullies and heaps of sand on the farm land. This reduces the size of existing farmland and depletes the nutrients necessary for the crops. At the same time the big gullies formed are cutting the road leading to keren town. This project, Gerger Watershed Management, is envisaged to address land degradation problem and enhance biodiversity conservation by engaging local actors in environmental conservation through building their capacities to act and create better livelihood options. This is a two year project (January 2013 to December 2014) targeting a total population of 1,050 people or 210 households. The Gerger Development Committee mobilizes the community on ground and takes lead in the watershed management project by forming its own environmental vanguards in the form of two groups. The major components are building the capacities of local environmental actors, making physical conservation works, construction of micro-dam and addressing livelihood options for the target community of Gerger. Total area of the watershed is around 3,000 ha of land, of which 81.5% is made up of steep landscape. Gentle slope accounts 10%, and the agricultural flat land adjacent to the village of Gerger is 8.5%. During this project period, Geleb Community Development primarily focus on 22.5 Ha of land through implementation of community based soil & water conservation activities such as construction of check dams of 15,000 M3, terracing of 90 Km and plantation of multipurpose tree (2,000 seedlings). The project targets all the 210 households (1,050 persons) in awareness raising, physical conservation of soil and water, including micro-dam construction. The micro-dam construction will parallel be supported by the Anseba Regional Administration, where the construction of the micro-dam is estimated at USD 110,000. To construct the heavier component of the micro-dam, machinery and qualified masons will be employed by the Anseba Regional Administration and the rest of the work will be complemented by Gerger Community with the Gerger Development Committee at the forefront. The project needs a total of Nakfa 3, 098,750.00 or USD 206,583.33 Contribution of GEF/ SGP is USD50, 000 Anseba Regional Administration s parallel funding for the construction of the micro-dam is USD 110,000 Community contribution is USD 19,250.00 Branch Ministry of Agriculture and Branch Ministry of Land, Water and Environment is USD 27,333.33 The contribution from the community, local government, Branch Ministry of Land, Water, and Environment and Branch Ministry of Agriculture includes labor, administrative support and technical backstopping respectively. In implementing the project, Gerger Development Committee will take the lead at managing project funds and coordinating project activities. The Gerger community forms two groups that undertake the actual planned activities. Gerger Development Committee members, soil and water conservation experts from the Branch Ministry of Agriculture and Branch Ministry of Land, Water and Environment, SGP personnel are represented in project monitoring and evaluation process and follow result based monitoring as per the detail plan presented in the body of this document. The knowledge gained from the project is also carefully documented and communicated to concerned organizations and offices by Gerger Development Committee supported by SGP office. The sustainability of the project results is seriously taken into account by focusing on building the capacity of stakeholders and creating benefit sharing mechanism. The project intervenes in soil and water conservation measures using feasible approaches of area closure and planting of drought resistant tree species. Hence, its impacts are eco-friendly that will sustain after the project life. The contribution made by different stakeholders especially by the community and local government reinforces the widely held conviction of project ownership and sustainability.
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