Latife Al Zeir, a Palestinian, works the land with her husband and her 8 children.
She is one of the 40 women farmers who participate in the Social Promotion project in Salfit, thanks to which she has been able to install a drip irrigation network in her home garden.
“Thanks to this system -afirma Latife-, we can not only save money on the water bill, but we will be contributing our small grain of sand to help a region like Salfit, which suffers constant cuts in supply”.
This system consists of a plastic tank of about 60m3, a network of hoses through which water is distributed, an electric pump and a filter. In this way, each family saves 75% of water compared to traditional hose irrigation, which also has a positive effect on their economy.
In addition, like the rest of the women, she has received seeds to cultivate and extract the maximum possible yield to a previously minimally exploited land.
The project that Social Promotion develops in Salfit, located in the north of the West Bank, tries to respond to the problem of water scarcity in the region, motivated by insufficient rainfall and its limited access for the population, and mitigate its dramatic consequences.
But, in addition, it is a contribution to gender equality and the empowerment of women, with specific actions for them.
Many of the women participating in the project live off agricultural production, especially older women. Therefore, one of the objectives of the project is to increase its production through the installation of “intelligent gardens”, and its proper training in agricultural techniques.