TheWaterChannel, Wageningen (2026)

23/07/2025

The sustainability of the global conventional food system is under increasing scrutiny, with strong claims that it is fundamentally broken. In Lebanon, concerns about the food system are particularly pressing. Lebanon’s conventional agriculture is heavily reliant on costly external inputs, making it vulnerable to economic shocks1. The severe economic crisis that has gripped the country since 2019 has exposed these vulnerabilities. Food prices in Lebanon have increased by 396% in just one year1. As of early 2025, 30% of the Lebanese population faces food insecurity2. Adding to these challenges, the MENA region – including Lebanon – is among the most water scarce areas in the world3. At the same time, the Lebanese agricultural sector faces mismanagement of natural resources and inputs and an instable political environment, lacking supportive frameworks for sustainable initiatives4. In response to these challenges, MetaMeta Research is partnering with the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) to explore practices of Regenerative Agriculture in Lebanon.

Keep reading through the link.

The RESOLVE project explores Regenerative Agriculture practices to strengthen food security and resilience in Lebanon's agricultural sector.

21/07/2025

Sewnet Mitiku Gashaw, aged around 47, is among hundreds of laundry women working in this domestic business for many years in Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia. She migrated from her rural village before 27 years. Sewnet has 25 years old boy and 15-year-old girl children. She got her children from different husbands. Both fathers of her children died early, leaving her is sole responsibility to raise the children.

To make ends meet for the family, Sewnet worked as a wage laborer in construction for 13 years. It was hard perilous work. Ten years ago, she shifted from construction to becoming a washerwoman, washing clothes for families in Bahir Dar Town in Ethiopia, besides doing some domestic work. When she started, she contracted with nine households on a monthly basis, and many others on a daily basis. The payment was made per cloth for daily jobs, and for a fixed amount for the families whose clothes she washed on a monthly basis.

Currently the work is much less. She has only two households as customers on a monthly basis. The daily customers are also minimized. The reason is that before a year she was sick for two months: in the meantime, her customers shifted to other washerwomen. Besides in the current economic dire straits in Ethiopia, many households start to wash their clothes by themselves since they can not afford money for washerwomen.

Keep reading through the lin.

The life of Sewnet Mitiku Gashaw, a washerwoman in, Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia, as she navigates economic hardships and physical demands.

18/07/2025

In the rangelands in Balochistan there are three grazing systems: nomadic (following a long route), transhumant (moving between high land and lowland) and sedentary (grazing around one’s village). These sizes of the flocks differ. Nomad families are among the poorest – their flock of goats and sheep vary between a minimum of 50 and a maximum of 300. In contrast in some areas, like Musakhail, Kingri, Zhob, Khajoori areas, sedentary families can more than 3000 animals.

Breeds
Pastoralists rear different types of breads. Sheep breads include Shinwari, Karagh, Balochi, Rakhshani, Dumari, Bivirikh, Mengali, Kakari and major goat breeds are Khurasian, Lehri, Teddy, Barbari and Pahari. Given the resilience to harsh weather and disease, the ‘Shinwari’ breed of sheep is most reared by local and nomad pastoralists. The second popular other bread is ‘Karagh’. Although heavy in weight, it is not as resilient as Shinwari and thus, less common to rear. Shinwari is moreover famous for making landi (dried mutton). Before the winter many sheep are slaughtered, and their meat is hung out to dry – to ensure to have protein in the often-harsh winter season. Shinwari landi is preferred – it is claimed to excel in taste. Mostly people use landi in winter season, so the market for Shinwari does not much fluctuate. However, during the Eid Ul Adha, or other occasions, the market rate of a mature Shinwari sheep rises, ranging between PKR. 60,000 to 90,000 (Euro 175-250), depending on size and weight. When Afghan nomads bring sheep in local market of Balochistan, market prices are driven down again.

Keep reading through the link.

Challenges and opportunities of rangeland management in Balochistan, focusing on pastoralism, grazing practices, and sustainable solutions.

16/07/2025

Rangelands are the heartbeat of rural livelihoods and managing microclimates in Balochistan. Being the largest province of Pakistan by area, Balochistan is a land of cultural diversity, a rich natural resource base, rugged mountains, wide valleys and extensive rangelands. Covering nearly 90% of the province’s area, rangelands are not just the source of grazing and biomass, but also home to biodiversity, natural beauty, an absorber of flash floods and buffer to droughts. Fundamentally, in a region where agriculture is limited and subsistence and water are scarce, rangelands are the primary source of sustenance for livestock, upon which thousands of agro-pastoral and pastoral communities are dependant. Approximately, two-third of its population earns part of their living by rearing animals and selling livestock by-products.

These rangelands are confronted with challenges of a lack of care and confused ownership, overgrazing, climate variability, prolonged droughts, and poor land-use practices, which are degrading these natural resources. Over the period, farmers, experts and development practitioners and planners have reiterated the need for a sustainable, community based inclusive approach with nature-based solutions to manage these resources not only to sustain more than 44 million livestock heads (as per available data by the department of Livestock and Dairy Development, Government of Balochistan), but for managing micro climate and biodiversity for the generations to come, which is an obligation on us. In the context of rangeland management, NbS can restore soil health, improve water retention, reduce land degradation, and increase the resilience of ecosystems to climate shocks.

Keep reading through the link.

Sustainable rangeland management and nature-based solutions can enhance livelihoods, climate resilience, and biodiversity in Balochistan

14/07/2025

In ancient Chinese times “dǎoliàn”(捣练) – a special type of laundry – was one of the most common tasks for women. It was an important step in the process of making silk clothes. “Liàn” refers to a silk fabric made from raw silk. When the cloth is newly woven, it is stiff and yellowish. Therefore, it must be soaked in boiling water, bleached, and then repeatedly pounded with a wooden mallet to dissolve the sericin (silk glue) on the fabric, and making it white and soft. The pounded silk was then ironed flat, cut, and sewn into garments. The painting “The Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk” (捣练图) by Tang dynasty artist Zhang Xuan depicts the above silk production by palace maidens in an annual imperial silk.

Now this was the special laundry for special clothes. However, how did ordinary people in ancient China wash their clothes without modern detergents? This blog will explore the ancient Chinese practice of clothes washing and its connection to the concept of degrowth.

In washing clothes in ancient China three types of natural detergents were used: plant ash, honey locust tree and rice water.

Keep reading through the link.

Ancient Chinese laundry practices using natural detergents like plant ash, honey locust pods, and their connection to sustainable degrowth.

11/07/2025

Washing clothes is key to life and defines hygiene and health. In most of rural Amhara (Ethiopia), clothes are washed manually in rivers or streams, with women often walking long distances. It is a time-consuming, labor-intensive task – adding to the many other family chores and their own agricultural work. In rural areas farmers are every day engaged in laborious agriculture activities. This makes for muddy clothes, demanding heavy physical scrubbing. Heavily soiled clothes need to be washed separately.

In recent years the price of soap, detergent and washing soda has been increasing more than the income from labor. Affordability has become an issue. To optimize the expenditures on detergents, many rural families in Amhara have returned to the use of homemade botanical soaps. These are prepared from plant leaves and seeds from the African soap berry aka Phytolacca dodecandra. The Amharic name is “endod”.

Rural families in Amhara, Ethiopia use Phytolacca dodecandra (Endod) for laundry, offering a sustainable alternative to commercial detergents

09/07/2025

The chars, temporary river islands formed by the shifting sediments of the Brahmaputra, are home to over a million people in Bangladesh. These landscapes are inherently unstable, shaped by constant erosion and flooding that threaten homes, livelihoods, and infrastructure. In these high-risk zones, conventional top-down climate financing models often fail to reach those who need them most.

In response, Friendship NGO has set up a community-led regranting mechanism for Locally Led Adaptation by the char communities. It directly supports community ownership, inclusive governance, and sustainable landscape restoration by ensuring that financial resources are managed and allocated by the communities themselves, responding to their specific climate vulnerabilities and development priorities. This approach stands in contrast to conventional top-down project financing or microfinance schemes, which often bypass local decision-making. Local communities in vulnerable situations herein are, often in combination with local government, best positioned to develop solutions that are appropriate in context, attuned to local capacities.

Keep reading through the link.

The RtF program empowers communities in Bangladesh with a community-led regranting mechanism for climate resilience and landscape restoration

07/07/2025

Since October 1, 2024, ORDA Ethiopia, in partnership with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), has been implementing the RtF program in Koti Kebele, Yilmana Densa Woreda, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Under this approach, ORDA regrants 70% of the €1 million it receives directly to local communities, enabling them to lead their own adaptation efforts.

The core focus: restoring six severely degraded micro-watersheds covering 2,735 hectares and improving the livelihoods of Koti’s 5,498 residents (1,285 households, including 260 female-headed ones) through locally defined climate adaptation strategies.

Keep reading through the link

Discover how ORDA Ethiopia empowers communities in Amhara Region through regranting for climate resilience and landscape restoration.

04/07/2025

RtF’s Regranting Mechanism: Empowering Local Ownership
RtF works by local NGOs who serve as hubs in each region. These hubs regrant 70% of the €1 million they receive directly to local communities, enabling those communities to lead their own adaptation efforts. The regranting mechanism under RtF is more than a funding tool: it signals a shift in power and perspective, sparking broader policy dialogue and establishing a new identity for climate-vulnerable groups.

The LANDWATER initiative in Coastal Bangladesh
In the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh, the LANDWATER initiative, implemented through the local NGO Uttaran, addresses the deeply interconnected challenges of waterlogging, salinity intrusion, sedimentation, and increasing climatic unpredictability. These stresses threaten both ecosystems and livelihoods, calling for sustained, coordinated responses rooted in local knowledge.

Eight landscapes were selected, each with its own Landscape Management Committee (LMC). These committees lead inclusive community discussions, listening sessions, and mass meetings to identify restoration priorities. This grassroots engagement ensures that adaptation measures reflect local realities and needs.

Keep reading through the link

Learn how the Reversing the Flow (RtF) program empowers communities in Bangladesh through regranting mechanisms for climate resilience.

02/07/2025

The term bio stimulant was first used in 2012. Using agricultural waste as a source to develop bio stimulants is a real game-changer. Due to the farm-to-fork and EU Green Deal strategy, the use of chemical pesticides is to be reduced by 50% and nutrient losses (from chemical fertilizers) are to cut by at least 50% by 2030, while ensuring no decline in soil fertility. This includes reducing overall fertilizer use by at least 20%.

Take whey, a byproduct of cheese production: the liquid that is left after the co-agulated cheese is pressed. Whey is highly valuable yet is one of the most neglected waste. From 1 liter of raw milk, one can obtain roughly 100g of cheese and 900g of whey. Even though it has a nutrient-rich profile, whey is often discharged to the wastewater or streams. However, some countries began to valorize whey. For instance, Spain valorizes 20% of the whey for reuse. Often in whey powder and bio stimulant.

Keep reading through the link

Discover how valorizing agricultural waste into bio stimulants can reduce chemical use, increase yields, and foster sustainable farming.

27/06/2025

They whistle to the birds. One bird comes. The bird leads them to bees’ nest. They make fire and smoke, which soothes the wild bees. They collect the honey in their jar. They leave some of the wax for the bird.

Such is the story of the Awer, a group of hunter-gatherers, living in Lamu District, Kenya – not far from the border with Somalia. The Awer have developed the ability to whistle to birds, in particular the indicator indicator or the honey guide. According to an article by van der Wal, Geti and Spottiswoode[1] they make several sounds using the perched shells of the giant African land snail. The honey-gatherers first call the birds to join (‘fuuj fuuj guuj’), then switching to a repetitive grunt (‘hah hah’, interspersed with ‘aweh’), asking the bird to lead. It usually takes fifteen to thirty minutes for the indicator indicator bird to take the gatherer to a bees’ nest, singing in the meantime. When the bird has reached the nest, it falls silent, and the gatherer knows he has arrived. There is a story among the Awer that the honey guide bird was not invited to the party where the bees were feasting all the birds in the forest with honey. In ire the honey guide made a pact with the hunter-gatherers. There are also anecdotes of the honey guide making the first approach, drawing the attention of humans to search together.

The Awer collect honey from stinged bees and stingless bees. With the mastery over fire and smoke the bees are placated high in the trees, and honey is collected in portable jars. Some Awer reward the honey guide birds with scraps of wax, but not all honey-hunters do. Some are of the belief that it is better for the birds to stay hungry.

Keep reading about the Awer people following the link.

Discover the unique honey-gathering tradition of the Awer in Kenya, who use honey guide birds to find bees' nests.

25/06/2025

The Afar Pastoralist Development Association (Qafar Dacarsittoh Dadalih Egla) or in short, APDA, is working for more than 30 years in the arid lowland Afar Region of Ethiopia.

Barring some communities on the western border where rain fell in brief storms, the vast hinterland of Afar this year is bone-dry and thirsty. The current short rains of March to April are extremely sparse and with no wind-direction indicating rain, the next rains are unlikely before late July/ August, scoring 11 months without rain. Going a round trip of 490 kilometers twice daily into Kori the dry central heart of the Region, APDA is struggling to prevent 63,000 people from thirst as well, the consequences of highly contaminated water each household struggles to collect with pack animals walking up to 3 day journeys. This APDA does by fueling a government-owned 25,000-liter truck rather than hiring which would cost 4 times the amount.

Now with the clammer of more desperately thirsty people, the organization is seconding a 2nd truck going in another direction into for a further 29,000 people in northern Dubte. At this stage, there are no other responders and if a day goes without the delivery, then death of the most vulnerable first can occur as children wait in the home for up to 3 days for their mother to bring as much turbid water as she and the donkey/ camel can carry…

Keep reading through the link.

The Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) addresses drought, food insecurity, and health challenges in Ethiopia's Afar Region.

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