For Celine, well water means no trek taking up half a day and the ability to cook a meal for herself and her two-year-old daughter Caroline. It means that no child’s sip of water will be a health gamble, a particularly frightening prospect given the lack of access to many medicines. Every metre of garden, every metre of well dug, is a lifesaver from a kilometre-long, exhausting trek for a resource that should be a basic right.

In the Gourcy garden, located in Burkina Faso, a drop no longer drills the rock, so we must take on the problem with heavy equipment and equally heavy manual labour. The water sources are getting deeper and deeper, but only an efficient irrigation system can prevent the local population from migrating in search of an environment where they can simply survive.

The one they inhabit was, until a dozen years ago, lush and green. Today, the soil around the garden is so dry that it can be smashed like porcelain. But we are not giving up. Inch by inch, we are trying to re-green the place that gives life and that the locals call Home.

The alternative? Treks to fetch water from wild sources, the pollution of which is a health hazard. Treks that take up a whole day.

In a country where 80% of the population relies on agriculture and livestock farming for its livelihood, the effects of global warming directly threaten the lives of the Burkinabe. Access to water is all they dream of.

We are progressing with the construction of another borehole to feed a modern irrigation system in the garden.
…
Today we celebrate Earth Day. A celebration of the ‘pale blue dot’ as Carl Sagan called the Earth, writing about our responsibility to be kinder to each other and to protect and respect this blue dot – the only home we have ever had.

We cannot change the motivations of the big corporations that contribute to the problem. We cannot move an entire country to a safe place where the basic needs of citizens are met. But we can let a child reach for a glass of clean water today, and make a garden green with new plantings tomorrow.

Please green a metre of land with us to celebrate this beautiful holiday.