Greening the Desert With Wastewater

During the Industrial Revolution, farmers began harvesting monoculture crops which produced promising profits but proved harmful to the soil and weakened the immune capabilities of native plants. Lately, however, permaculture practices have been on the rise amongst farmers to better diversify their yields and reduce reliance on chemicals.

As climate change continues to advance, its impact on farmlands has become more pronounced and increasingly devastating. Farmers and researchers in both South Africa and Nepal are working towards solutions to problems specifically related to climate change. Centered on developing technology, these farmers have found success with NASA satellite imagery as well as local clinics.

Uganda’s education ministry requires all schools to have incinerators to burn used sanitary pads. Lack of funding limits schools’ ability to comply. Even when incinerators exist, girls don’t necessarily use them. Educating both girls and boys about menstruation reduces stigma and increases the likelihood that girls feel comfortable enough to collect pads instead of throwing them in pit latrines.

The simple addition of adding handles to bathroom stalls in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has helped the camps' pregnant women regain a sense of empowerment and dignity. Providing support and balance, the design of these latrines have benefited the elderly in the camps as well.

New solar-powered irrigation systems in the Chotanagpur Plateau region in India are giving farmers more dependable water and allowing them to diversify their crops, allowing them to also grow their income. Many farmers from a local village used to migrate to other places to search for work, but a new irrigation system has allowed them to grow cauliflower for a competitive price. While the cost of buying and installing a solar-powered irrigation system can be high, this form of irrigation could be more climate-friendly and help stabilize crop production.

As climate changes causes seawater to flood land and increase the salt content in soil, farms in Scotland and the Netherlands are experimenting with using the saltwater to grow food. Seawater Solutions is growing crops called halophytes that have a high-salt tolerance and can be eaten or used as material for cosmetics and biofuels. And the Salt Farm Foundation has shown that potatoes, cabbage, and tomatoes can grow in saltwater. These projects can labor intensive, but seawater irrigation could be a viable climate adaptation solution.

Natural Sequence Farming is the process of restoring a landscape's original hydration processes by "reading the landscape and tapping into the land's natural system of self-rehydration," – and it's helping Mulloon Creek Natural Farms in New South Wales revive dry farmland. Although some, including the government, haven't entirely accepted the practice, the pilot project has shown a "63% increase in production on the hydrated land."

As a way to combat climate change, scientists are experimenting with genetically modified trees as a way to draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to store in its leaves, roots, and trunk. The startup Living Carbon has genetically modified poplar and pine seeds in the ground and expect them to be ready by the end of the year. Some scientists are worried about how these trees can impact forest ecosystems, but they grow faster than normal trees, allowing them to study and assess the risks quicker.

Lamakani, a small village in India, went barren and townspeople completely depended on water tankers after a drought in the 90s. One leader initiated a watershed movement. They applied a series of approaches which included things like watershed development, bans on grass grazing and tree falling, and collaborating with local artists to communicate messages of conservation. Now, the town is lush again.

After years of drought and land-clearing that left Niger with few trees left, the country now boasts about 200 million trees, which have mostly been reestablished naturally. While the effects of climate change could threaten the future of these trees, this method has also increased crop yields in villages. This model of letting trees grow back with little human influence could be implemented in other countries.