This week the Green Column focuses on the work of Excellent Development, chosen by BBC Radio 4 for their summer appeal to be broadcast on Sunday and Thursday, July 3. It’s a charity with strong Manx roots through its executive director, Simon Maddrell, a man who displays the Three Legs on his front door and a framed copy of the Manx national anthem on his toilet wall
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Simon Maddrell took a risk for Excellent Development – he freed himself from a business career and put £4,000 of his own money into kickstarting a charity, Excellent Development.
He said in an interview with the Telegraph: ‘I would never call myself a philanthropist. More of a social entrepreneur. You have to have a lot of money to be a philanthropist.’
Excellent Development pioneers the construction of wonderful things called sand dams, the most cost-effective method of rainwater harvesting in drylands. Each dam stores up to 40 million litres of water – protected from evaporation, contamination and disease vectors, such as mosquitoes and Bilharzia-transmitting snails.
They recharge groundwater and create water security in otherwise water-scarce environments.
Sand dams are an affordable way to restore degraded drylands. They give family farmers the opportunity to invest in climate-smart agriculture, thereby addressing poverty, hunger, conflict, climate change and creating green economic growth – all at the same time! See more at excellentdevelopment.com/what-we-do/supporting-rural-communities
Sand dams require virtually zero operation and maintenance cost, unless fitted with a hand-pumped well, and last more than 50 years. Sophisticated in design and simple in construction, they are simply brilliant.
More than 74 per cent of the world’s poor live in drylands – most of them rural smallholder farmers who depend on rain-fed agriculture. Yet international investment in building resilient and sustainable agricultural systems remains poor.
Dryland degradation costs developing countries an estimated 4 to 8 per cent of their national GDP each year. Sustained investment in the conservation of soil and water would go a long way to empowering women, improving education, increasing food production, stimulating economic growth and reducing migration and conflict.
In 12 years, Excellent Development has enabled rural dryland farmers to build 413 sand dams, benefiting 479,990 people.
Dryland family farmers are some of the world’s most vulnerable communities, as well as playing critical roles in creating food security and combating critical global challenges: desertification, climate change and loss of biodiversity.
Excellent Development supports rural dryland communities to work their way out of poverty with dignity in the following ways:
(i) by working with local partners, they support rural communities to gain access to clean water close to their homes and to invest in climate-smart agriculture;
(ii) by pioneering sand dams, they promote and support the application of sand dams by key stakeholders in the world’s drylands for the benefit of the world’s poor.
Their approach is to enable other people, organisations and governments to apply this brilliant technology in their own countries.
Since 2007, the government and people of the Isle of Man have been early and committed supporters of Excellent Development’s work through the International Development Committee.
The Golden Jubilee Trust has also sponsored Manx students to take part in their summer expeditions in Kenya.
In the past two years, Excellent Development has registered as a charity on the Isle of Man, supported the application of sand dams in Swaziland by UNDP and the government of Swaziland as part of their national climate change adaptation strategy, and launched the Excellent Sand Dam Manual, a practical guide to the siting, design and construction of sand dams.
They also introduced sand dams to India, in the Thar desert, and are planning the application of sand dams in Zimbabwe with the Africa Centre for Holistic Management.
For those who might remain cynical about international aid, please reflect on Simon’s words: ‘The fuel in your tank is actually going back, talking to families and seeing how their lives have been changed; seeing their demeanour, their pride, their new ways of growing and feeding themselves. The thing is, you can only change the world one step at a time.’
You can hear Excellent Development’s BBC Radio 4 Appeal on Sunday at 7.55am and 9.26pm and again on Thursday, July 3, at 3.27pm.
For more details, see the charity’s website excellentdevelopment.com/bbcradio4