Eco-Friendly Development Builds Hope for a Greener Future
As an undergrad at Old Dominion University in the early 1970s, Carl Mitchell was fascinated with the relationship between plants and animals and their environment. The budding ecologist was seriously considering a career in academia as the environmental movement began to gain momentum. Inspired by the notion that his passion could be harnessed to make a difference, Mitchell and like-minded friends founded a grassroots environmental activist organization to promote the importance of recycling and conservation.
“The organization’s name was ‘Ecos’,” Mitchell smiles. “Our motto was ‘A growing concern.’”
Realizing that he needed to pursue a vocation that would accommodate both his environmental interests and his commitment to public action, Mitchell enrolled in a graduate urban planning program at Michigan State University and landed a position with an environmental consulting firm in Washington, DC after graduation. A decade later, his hire of a field ecologist—Ron Greenberg—would prove serendipitous. When the firm closed in the late 1980s, Greenberg joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to work on environmental projects abroad. By 1990, he had convinced Mitchell to sign on as well.
For the first time, Mitchell had the opportunity to apply his knowledge and experience on a global scale. He spent much of the early 1990s working to improve water quality through an international pollution project that examined river basins in Romania, Bulgaria and other Central European countries that flowed into the Danube River. As one USAID liaison to the World Environment Center, an industry group dedicated to the concept that environmentally friendly work is good business, Mitchell helped to promote water pollution prevention strategies in Central and Southern Europe.
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| Mitchell and USAID colleagues on a field visit to evaluate oil field pollution issues in the Turkmenistan desert |
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| Mitchell visits with a family that operates a bed & breakfast on Lake Baikal, Russia, as participants in a USAID-funded initiative to develop the region's hospitality and tourism industry |
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union , USAID launched the Environmental Policy and Technology (EPT) Project and Ron Greenberg was named division chief. Once again, Greenberg called upon his old friend and colleague to help manage what had quickly become a mammoth effort in the then-newly independent states. Over $40M was spent between 1994-1997 to help these nations avert and ameliorate environmental crises and develop sustainable means to build their economies. One of EPT’s successes was a program to improve people’s access to clean water in communities surrounding the Aral Sea in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The Aral Sea, located in the middle of a desert in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, was once one of the largest inland saltwater fisheries in the world. In the 1960s, however, the Soviet Union decided to sacrifice the Aral in order to become self-sufficient in cotton-production and diverted its major source rivers for irrigation. Over time, the sea was “starved” and its fisheries destroyed. According to Mitchell, the impact on surrounding communities has been devastating.
“The sea is now only about 45% of its former size,” Mitchell reports. “Where there was once water there are now salt plains laced with toxic waste—a by-product of polluted industrial run-off.”
The once robust inland fisheries of the Aral Sea declined over the decades, and international optimism that a way could be found to reverse this process dwindled in recent years, the with so many of the local people dedicated to cotton and rice production. Meanwhile, the air and groundwater has become contaminated with toxic waste and salt—damaging crops and resulting in an alarming incidence of various cancers, chronic diseases and respiratory illnesses.
In 1994, USAID embarked on an ambitious three-year plan to build a desalinization plant in the Dashhowuz velayat (region), as a means to provide clean water to many of the Aral Sea communities, as part of a larger program to alleviate the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster. Some predicted that the plant would be stripped of its parts within a year and that workers would leave to find more lucrative employment. Instead, the local USAID mission developed strong collaborative relationships with the Turkmenistan government, local community groups, non-governmental organizations and other donors to create a solution that made a real difference in people’s lives. USAID supplied the funds and technical support for construction, the Turkmenistan government committed resources for ongoing maintenance and competitive wages, the World Bank provided trucks to carry desalinized water to the local communities, and villages raised monies to build cisterns to ensure that citizens could access a clean water supply. Over six years since its completion, the plant remains intact and continues to benefit thousands of people. As a result, the impact of this environmental disaster has been somewhat alleviated.
When asked about local sentiments toward the US , Mitchell recounts an anecdote that was shared by a colleague in the field who was present at a meeting years ago between a local village official and a visiting Japanese dignitary:
“After a discussion of the plant’s success, the Japanese dignitary indicated that the progress made was impressive and that his government would be interested in providing assistance. Noting a miniature flag holder bearing the US and Turkmenistan flags on the local official’s desk, the visitor said that he would like to see a Japanese flag displayed there as well. The Turkmenistan official reflected for a moment, and then told his guest that he had been visited by many people from many different countries, and that if he looked out his window, he could see the desalinization plant the US had given his people. Then opening a desk drawer, he pulled out a stack of business cards, slapped them down and said, ‘This is what the rest of the world gave us!’”
Mitchell believes that this exchange brings home the real sense that the US can have a substantial impact in people’s lives around the globe through development efforts that they can value and support into the future.
“When we do well,” he says, “People will respect our investments and work hard to make them sustainable. And that is extremely rewarding.”
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Carl Mitchell is currently assigned to the USAID’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia in Washington, DC as Team Leader for Environment and Infrastructure, where he worked to create the new Balkans Infrastructure Development Facility (www.bidfacility.com), a multinational, revolving fund created to attract private sector investment to developing public infrastructure in the Balkans.
The US Agency for International Development has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide for more than 40 years.
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