Work to Begin on Sustainable Eco-Farm in Negev Bedouin Community
Work to Begin on Sustainable Eco-Farm in Negev Bedouin Community
December 12, 2011
Alternative Energy, Negev Development & Community Programs
A sustainable eco-farm for the Negev Bedouin community that has been in the works for four years is under way.
The goal of Project Wadi Attir is to create an ecological community that combines Bedouin traditional values with modern renewable energy technology and farming techniques. It is the brainchild of Dr. Michael Ben-Eli at the New York-based Sustainability Laboratories and Hura Mayor Dr. Muhammad El-Nabari.
Dr. Michael Ben-Eli first connected with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev as a guest of Josh Arnow, a member of our Americans for Ben-Gurion University community in the Greater New York Region.
A number of faculty from BGU’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR) are lending their expertise, and several technologies developed at the BIDR are being used to create this sustainable community, including:
- An agroforestry and silvapasture program that will transform soil quality, developed by researcher Stephan Leu at the French Associates Institute for Agriculture and Biotechnology of Drylands
- The electricity and air conditioning systems will be powered by ZenithSolar, with technology developed by Prof. David Faiman at the Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research
- A biogas production system that will convert goat and sheep manure to methane gas for cooking fuel, developed by Dr. Amit Gross at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR)
- ZIWR’s Dr. Amit Gross’s grey water treatment system that replicates the purification abilities of natural wetlands
“We have tried to design this project based on the aspiration and tradition and culture of the Bedouin, but leveraging it with advanced technology,” says Dr. Michael Ben-Eli.
“It is an attempt to develop a model for sustainable agriculture in an arid environment Research.”