Gazze Sorunu Üzerine

Uzun zamandır zalim İsrail devleti Filistin ve Gazze ye elinden gelen tüm gücüyle ve her şekliyle bir gün dahi durmadan saldırdı. Ne zaman ki Gazze'de ağır bombardımanlar başlar işte biz o zaman ağzımıza gelen her şeyi söyleriz. sosyal medyada foto, video, linkler, animasyonlar vs.. bi ton şey paylaşarak İsrail devletinin faşist politikasına olan kinimizi gösteriyoruz.
Dünya'nın polisi ABD "zamanı geldiğinde" çatışmasızlık oluşması ve "barış görüşmeleri"nin
başlaması için adımı atar ve sonrasında "barış görüşmeleri" kaldığı yerden devam eder e haliyle biz de hayatımıza kaldığımız yerden devam ederiz. İleri ki zamanlarda yaraların sarılması için kermesler, yardım kampanyaları ve diğer adımlar tek tek atılır memleketin dört bir köşesinde.

Başka ne yapabiliriz? 

İki yıllık yüksek lisans sürecinde üç Avrupa ülkesinde ve bir Asya ülkesinde yaşadım. Dört farklı ülkede kaldım ve neredeyse hemen her milletten insanla tanıştım. Bunlardan bazıları Türkiye'deki biz bir çok gencin yapamadığını yapıp Filistin'e ve hatta Gazze'ye kadar gitmiş ve oralarda çeşitli organizasyonlarda/derneklerde gönüllü olarak çalışmışlar. Bazıları oradaki sivil toplum örgütlerinde gönüllü olarak çalışmış, kendi memleketinin hastanesinde (Almanya) staj yapacağı yerine gidip Ramallah'taki bir hastanede yapmış yada tez konusunu kendi ülkesinde yapmak yerine (İtalya) Gazze üzerine yapmaya karar verip yavaştan uçak parası biriktirmeye başlamış. En yakın İtalyan arkadaşlarımdan birisi ve aynı zamanda eski ev arkadaşım tez konusu için "kız başına" tüm riskleri göze alarak Gazze'ye gitmeye karar verip "couchsurfing" yaparak daha az para harcayıp daha çok yerel halk ile yakından tanışma şansı olmuş.

Filistin'e gitmiş olan arkadaşlarım ve tanıdığım insanlarla Filistin sorununu konuştuğumda veya başka birisiyle bu konuyu tartıştığında insanın gözlerini dolduracak kadar yürekli konuşuyor. Düşünün hepsi kendi ülkesinde ne zaman bu konuda konuşulsa tüm gücüyle Filistinli halkın yanında duruyor, onları savunuyor, kampanyalar düzenliyor ve gerektiğinde sokağa da çıkıyor. Bu o ülkelerdeki hükumetleri zora sokuyor. Peki biz de kaç kişi tez yazmak için yada gidip oradaki gönüllü olarak çalışmaya karar verebiliyoruz? Gidip onların yanında durup, dertlerini dinlemek, yaralarını sarmak için adım atmamız gerekiyor. Artık Türkiye'deki gençler de Filistin'e gidebilmeli ve oradaki bu sorununu yakından görmesi lazım. Hollanda'daki veya Almanya'daki yardım kuruluşları bir çok ülkeye genç gönüllüleri yanlarında götürerek sadece iş yükünün azalması değil aynı zamanda dünyanın farklı köşelerinde nelerin olup bittiğini yerinde görerek dünyada var olan değişimi daha iyi anlamalarına olanak sunuyor.
Artık bu kısır döngüyü kırmanın zamanı geldi de geçiyor. 

The Big Hole in the Middle East

by Sukru Esin and Frank van Steenbergen
August 12, 2014 

Whilst the attention in Middle East water conflicts has been on water from rivers, we may have lost the water ‘beneath our feet’ and with it the strong basis for future well-being and security in this region.

According to California University Hydrological Modeling Department, the Euphrates and Tigris river basins have been losing huge quantities of ground water reserve – with the maximum anomaly right at the border point between Syria, Turkey and Iraq. The video above shows the groundwater depletion in Middle East via GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) model, which uses deviation in the gravity rotations to assess the weightage lost because of groundwater extraction. The impact of uncontrolled groundwater extraction, poor irrigation methods and a lack of water management in the area and the uncontrolled use of groundwater has left a huge ‘hole’ in the groundwater reserves in Turkey, Iraq and Syria.

The Euphrates and Tigris originate in the Eastern part of Turkey and famously flow to Iraq and Syria. There have been long standing problems between the Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian governments on the water releases from these two vital rivers. Since the building of Keban dam (1965-1973) by Turkey water conflicts emerged between the three countries that once formed ‘the cradle of civilization.’ To secure its own resources the Syrian government responded by building the Tabqa dam between 1968-1973, but that dam created conflict between Iraq and Syria. At the time the Saudi government prevented potential war between these countries.

The first trilateral talks started with Joint Technical Committee meetings in 1983, yet despite protests by neighboring countries the Turkish government constructed the Ataturk Dam (1983-1992), which is the biggest dam in Turkey.  Iraq and Syria have consistently insisted that the water releases downstream from the Ataturk Dam should be agreed upon and settled but nothing has happened. The Iraqi government even threatened the Turkish government that if less than 700 cu m/s were released to Syria, it would not renew the 1984 Security Protocol. Water conflict is the order of the day: manifesting as claims for more and transparent water releases, refusal to take part in meetings, and complaints to Arab League and western countries. With observations from GRACE satellite, it is clear that the situation is even much more precarious. With the depleting groundwater resources, the heavily disturbed region is staring down into a precipice and a future with vanished groundwater and choked surface water supplies.

Nevertheless, Turkish authorities continue to single-handedly pursue the building of dams along the two rivers. Obviously Turkey, Iraq and Syria urgently need to organize an action plan in order to manage water from the Tigris and Euphrates catchments and in general make huge progress in more efficient water use and conjunctive water resource management. Between the three countries there are several agreements but none of these seem valid or effective. This holds the future of Iraq and Syria in suspension.  That’s why developing hydropower in the Middle East can be dangerous. Instead of constructing new dams in Anatolia, Turkish government should assist neighbor countries to manage the Euphrates and Tigris river basins together and share equally, otherwise there might be trouble in the neighborhood.

Currently Syria and Iraq are in severe turmoil and nobody knows when and how this will end. Sectarian conflict, corrupt politicians, lack of transparency in governance, lack of education, poverty, tribal lifestyle and sometimes naïve competition to bring  “Democracy” to the region has created the worst possible logjam.  

The deep crisis in Syria and in Iraq definitely will affect Turkey, currently the single stable factor in the region - if not in short term then definitely in the medium term. Neither U.S drones nor any other useless sophisticated weapons will solve the current turmoil. They may, in fact, make things worse. Therefore Turkey should help various parties in the neighboring countries to achieve ceasefires and solve problems at the table. There is a strong case to add water management to the discussion: the Middle East is drying up rapidly and its future prosperity stands on increasingly thin ground.

http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/thewaterblog/291-the-big-hole-in-the-middle-east 

The Greenhouse Hero

Pakistan’s rural population face particular challenges, with two-thirds of the total population or 80 percent of the poor population living in rural areas (IFAD 2012). Greenhouse is not a common practice in Sindh but it can help farmers to increase crop productivity with modern techniques as the video shows. Unexpected but real improvement on the soil and an easy and cheap tool to change their irrigation system. Economic improvement highly depended on agriculture in Pakistan, so it is maybe the time to change…

Tunnel Greenhouse in Creative Community Garden Wageningen

Do it Your Self (DIY) is an internet phenomena and ever since we have online tv channels, DIY has become very famous. It seems like we will hear more and more of it day by day. DIY videos can be on agriculture, science and other topics. People share the knowledge freely through Youtube and other related video channels, which means that the knowledge is spread all over the world. On this video young students install their own simple tunnel greenhouse at their garden. Wageningen, The Netherlands is not warm enough to keep tomato saplings outside and they want the plants to grow faster. For this reason they installed a low cost tunnel greenhouse. DIY videos basically show that its not that difficult to make something  even if you have never done it. Videos obviously encourage you to do it, instead of buying vegetables directly from the shop or hire someone to do it. It’s fun and learning by doing. 

More info: 
Produced by: Sukru Esin
Year: 2014
Language: English
Region: Netherlands, Global 

http://thewaterchannel.tv/media-gallery/5900-tunnel-greenhouse-in-creative-community-garden-wageningen

Sindh Portraits

Pakistan's Sindh province is host to a diverse culture, livelihoods and agricultural practices. Equally diverse are the issues its rural people-- farmers, livestock owners, fishermen-- are faced with. This video tries to capture a part of the Sindhi cross-section, as to how they are affected by and coping with the problem of saline intrusion into their land and water resources.

More info: http://thewaterchannel.tv/thewaterblog/211-the-cleanup
Produced by: MetaMeta, Sukru Esin
Year: 2014
Language: Sindhi, Urdu, Punjabi and English
Region: Sindh, Pakistan

Mango Mulching

The majority of freshwater consumption in the world is for agriculture and unfortunately many countries are  not using water properly. That is why farmers are facing salinity, land degradation, water scarcity, low profit and other relevant problems. Due to unsustainable and insufficient irrigation methods, farmers waste a huge amount of water and already a lot of countries are facing water scarcity significantly. 

In order to decrease water demand Asim Agriculture Farm (AAF) is doing traditional mulching methods and applying less irrigation on their field. Biodegradable mulching not only decreases water demand but also increases soil organic matter. This way, instead of wasting or burning crop residues farmers can reuse and get profit from it.  

This short film shows that we don’t have to know sophisticated technical methods to practice proper farming. As MetaMeta says, “Sometimes you’re standing on a solution without even knowing it…”

Creative Garden Wageningen

Creative garden wageningen is so far one of the nicest place in Wageningen. Quite nice place to learn by doing and its pretty close to the Campus actually. I just wanted to make a short video about the garden. My music choose made clip little bit scary but its not really scary place reality : ) 

Primetime Farming in Turkey

Posted by Sukru Esin March 04, 2014 Turkish soaps are extremely popular from Morocco to Pakistan. Broadcast of a new episode often means that shops are shut down and streets are empty. There is, however, more to the Turkish mediascape: agricultural television, for example. A slew of projects had been launched across the country to manage poor agricultural management and outdated traditional practices, but with limited effect. In 2010, the  Turkish Ministry of Food , Agriculture and Livestock LaunchedTarim TV. Since then, ‘success has bred success.’ There are now 4 television stations in Turkey (1 government-owned, 3 private) offering dedicated 24x7 programming on agriculture. They broadcast talk shows  and documentaries round the clock on a variety of topics such as livestock, horticulture, staple crops, beekeeping… just to name a few. They provide information to farmers about government schemes, subsidies, weather forecasts et cetera. Most content can also be accessed online where it is archived for later viewing. This makes for a huge, growing repository- one can find almost all there is to know. Private TV channels also offer ad space. Private companies also help produce field demonstration films and documentaries. This way, an active agri-service sector is able to reach out to farmers all over Turkey. The Turkish economy is growing rapidly, matched only by that of China. Its agricultural sector is currently ranked eighth in the world. Thanks to growing private and public investment, the agricultural GDP grew from USD 24 million to USD 63 million over the decade 2002-2012. One can see agricultural TV shows playing being watched at tea houses and homes in farming areas. They have also broken through barriers and reached the marginalized, such as farmers in remote areas. This is not to say that just reach translates automatically into influence. There are plenty of farmers who watch these television shows but continue to stick to bad practices and outdated views. Nevertheless, with old ‘training and visit’ mode of agricultural extension long gone, agricultural television in Turkey has been able to bridge many knowledge gaps in Turkey. Websites of some prominent agricultural television networks Turkey: http://www.bereket.tv/ http://www.tarimturk.com/ http://www.tarimtv.gov.tr/index.php (government-owned) http://koytv.tv/ http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/en/thewaterplaza/the-water-blog

Black out, No More!

Pakistan is facing electricity shortage very badly. It’s obvious that government can’t solve energy crises in a short time. As a result of not very efficient governance, the energy crises is affecting the farming sector negatively.

Due to the frequency of power cut, one of the progressive farmers in Hyderabad thought outside the box and installed an innovative solar panel in the region. He irrigates also his crops thanks to this solar power energy without power cut.  It seems to be a long way to solve energy problems but is a step forward to it. Pakistani people should not forget that they have enough sunny days! 

Banana Wind Breakers

In Sindh Province (Pakistan) one of the main crop is banana and will increase the following years. The reason is that local people call the banana "cash crop".  Asim Agriculture Farm (AAF) is one of the few extraordinary progressive farms in Sindh. In order to prevent wind damages AAF engineers have planted tall varieties of banana all around the field and with this simple method , they are able to decrease probability of severe disasters at their farm. 

According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the climate Change predictions in Pakistan will be dangerous due to the global warming. In Tando Allahyar some people already started to follow AAF’s good practices.

Conjunctive win win

Due to the lack of drainage network in Sindh province (Pakistan) the  majority of the farmers are facing water logging problems and as a result,  soil is becoming saline day by day. Once the field becomes saline, farmers can not harvest… As the majority of Pakistani’s income is dependent on agriculture, if they dont open drainage networks, people will face more difficulties… 

Some of farmers dug their own surface drainage. In this video from the Nawazabad Farm, it shows a very simple surface drainage canal that not only balances groundwater level but also collects seepage from the canal and used as water shortage. Basically Nawazabad farm is doing conjunctive water use at their field.
In these kind of areas where  there is water scarce, one of the best solution is conjunctive water use. 

The Big Cleanup

Posted by Frank van Steenbergen, Bakshlal Lashari and Sukru Esin January 15, 2013 It may be one of the word’s largest clean ups – the annual ‘canal closure’ in the mega irrigation systems in Sindh, Pakistan. Every year for two weeks in January the large irrigation canals are closed. No water is allowed to flow in them during that period. Instead, manual labour and excavators move in to remove the silt that has built up over the course of the year. An impressive routine has developed: All the labour engaged in the irrigation canals are mobilized at once when the intake gates are shut down. The gates are further reinforced with jute bags and earthen dikes in front of them so that no water flows into these mighty canals. Some of Sindh’s canal are the largest in the world: the single Rohri Canal for instance irrigates 1.3 Million hectares and the Nara Canal 1 Million hectares. They are wider and longer than, for instance, the Suez canal. Not all canals section are cleaned – this would simply be too much work especially given the resources that are available. The maintenance of the canal systems is chronically underfunded. Farmers are supposed to pay a rather complex irrigation tax in Sindh, based on an assessment of the crop grown in the previous season. This assessment is laborious and the outcomes are usually either disputed or ‘negotiated’. Moreover, the amounts charged per unit land (USD 5-10 per hectare) are too low – so there is no great willingness to collect the meagre sums.  Hence the focus is on the ‘hard water canals’: canals that choke rapidly because they are curvy and very flat. And canals that are made ‘in fill’, i.e. constructed on top of the land. If not maintained well, such high canals get breached and flood the land. Interesting rituals have come into existence. When the sill at the top section of the canal is cleaned of silt, the year is painted on the concrete blocks at the bottom of the canal. This is then covered under water until next year’s cleaning operations.  (See picture above). The mega canals have transformed Sindh Province like no other force. What until 1930 was desert country dependent on annual floods has been a well laid out, perennially irrigated land for decades. However, productivity of this land is lower than all other areas. In many areas, close 65% of the water is just lost to evaporation. The big challenge is water logging.  Due to irrigation,  groundwater levels have come very close to the surface, saturating the soil so that most crops cannot grow any longer. Besides,  the constant evaporation of water transports the salts in it to the surface, creating plots of land with white crusts of salt on the surface that are no longer useable. The soggy and saline land not only loses its productivity but also causes a number of diseases: malaria, kidney problems and liver fluke (for livestock). This waterlogging is not inevitable. Simply too much water is allowed into these flat areas which simply cannot go away; a situation that naturally turns into massive waterlogging. The telling story in this regard is of the 1998-2002 drought when water supplies were reduced by 20% but crop production went up, not down. The reason is that the waterlogging got dissipated over large parts of the Sindh Province. Whereas in ‘normal’ years it extends to 40% of the irrigated land (say 2 Million hectares), in the dry years the water logging dropped to less than 5% of the land: an enormous difference.  In other words, the drought was a blessing. There is so much scope to make better use of the gift of water in Sindh: rationalizing how much water is led into the area is Priority Number One.  Then there is also a need to improve drainage and at least start unblocking the natural drains that have been disturbed by the building of roads and other infrastructure. Also, farming can improve. Travelling in Sindh, one spots small islands of hope where farmers are using wise water management techniques-- such as mulching, ridges and green houses-- and achieving high productivity, whereas their neighbours continue to over-irrigate and face waterlogging and salinity. Some farmers have also taken drainage into their own hands: excavating their own drains and sometimes taking over drainage pumping stations that the government owned but was unable to take care of. The final solution is to live better with the salt. A large part of Sindh Province has saline groundwater. Though difficult, there are options to use saline water productively: growing special crop varieties, using natural salt-tolerant plants, making fishponds, use soil remediants or adding more manure to the land. Even though Sindh is now low on agricultural yields, it is a land of large promise.  With better water management and more innovative farming, Sindh could become an agricultural power house for the food hungry Middle East. This article published on the water channel tv website. http://www.thewaterchannel.tv/en/thewaterplaza/the-water-blog