São Paulo – Representatives of Arab and South American countries are going to meet in Paraíba to present their experiences in life in arid and semiarid regions. The meeting should take place in the scope of the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa) between the 27th and 30th of April and will include activities in João Pessoa, the state capital, and Campina Grande, where the National Semiarid Institute (Insa), one of the organizers of the meeting, is located.
Insa is the Ministry of Science and Technology’s arm whose responsibility it is to cover matters related to desertification at the Aspa. It was the organisation that proposed the meeting, to be organized in partnership with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) and the Ministry of Foreign Relations. According to the Insa director, Roberto Germano Costa, the event should include a meeting of representatives from each country in the Aspa.
Germano stated that the meeting should be a change of experiences in arid and semiarid areas. "Ours are more in semiarid areas," explained the director, whose expectations for the meeting are very positive. "They will strengthen ties between the countries of the Aspa," he said.
The idea is that the Brazilian experience be presented, two in the field. One, according to Germano, should be the Sweet Water Program, whose objective is to offer drinking water to low-income populations in the semiarid through desalination. Another program to be presented will be goat farming in Cariri region, in Paraíba. Through the program, 31 institutes are working on the fostering of goat farming for the region.
Participants should learn about these experiences where they are developed, in Paraíba itself. For this reason, a share of the activities will be developed in João Pessoa, the state capital, and another part in Campina Grande, the gateway into the savannah in Paraíba. The meeting is being called "Technologies for Coexistence in Droughts Workshop ".
*Translated by Mark Ament
