Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

In October 2008 a small team of teachers from the UK spent a week working alongside teachers from the desert (Badia) region of Jordan where sustainability is a real challenge. One of them, Tony Escritt, brought the Excellent Development films with him, to share ideas with the team on water harvesting and sand dams.

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Rising population, deteriorating grazings, changing climate and an over-reliance on pumped water supplies are among the issues affecting the survival of these desert communities.

Centuries ago the occupants of the Badia, notably the Nabateans, constructed efficient water harvesting systems including sizeable cisterns.

With the coming of piped water supplies these systems have fallen into disrepair and with them the knowledge of their effective maintenance.

With the unreliability of the precipitation and the abstraction of water north of the border in Syria the collection and storage of surface water becomes more important. The Jordanians who felt that lessons could be learned from the approaches to both water harvesting and community involvement eagerly reviewed the Excellent Development CD.

One of the objectives of the teachers’ workshop is to look at ways of involving students in making decisions about the issues that affect them. Water comes top of this agenda and will figure in future study units – including making use of the Excellent Development CD as a resource. Further UK-Jordan Teachers’ Workshops will be happening soon. Any teachers interested in finding out more should visit www.badiaproject.org.uk.