Environmental policy and administrative management

Dyr Al-Hared area is located at the end of Wadi Surdude only less than 10 Km away from the Red Sea at Ul-urj. Due to expanded irrigation projects in upper Wadi stream, built in the 80ies, flood water does not reach the area since then. Local farmers drilled their own tube well to enable them grow income and subsistent crops. There is two water tables quality in the area influenced by the depth of the wells. Ground water table is found at 45 meter deep but with high salinity e.g. 6100 micromole but at depth of 80 meter and below is 1100 micromole. The altitude of the area is ca. 30 m above Sea level; hence the indicated depth is well below Sea level. The project aims are to achieve the followings: 1.Adopt 45 surface irrigation systems covering 270 ha. Of agricultural land 2.Save 30% of irrigation water and labours 3.Reduce soil salinity and undesirable weeds growth 4.Build up local community capacity in land management and resources conservation 5.Raise community awareness about local environment 6.Annual saving in fuel cost = 129,359US$ 7.Avoidance of CO2 emission= 745.37tons/year 8.Improve farm economy = US$ 625/farm/year The project is funded by local farmers (52%), the National Irrigation project (20%) and the GEF small Grant Programme(28% ). The total project investment is US$ 148,466. The investment cost will be recoverable within a period of 17 months.

Yemen