Father Verspieren and Mali Aqua Viva: Lessons Learned from Fighting Drought and Poverty with Photovoltaic Solar Energy in Africa

Almost fifty years after the first installations, I identify the main lessons learned from fighting drought and poverty in Africa with direct solar-powered pumps thanks to Father Bernard Verspieren and Mali Aqua Viva. Six main findings and three main recommendations emerge from the present analysis which are of direct relevance to all Africa’s countries whose population has gone from 438 million in 1977 to 1308 million in 2019, with about 600 million still having no access to electricity. In place of “awareness campaigns”, I recommend to organize practice-oriented workshops on solar-powered irrigation and rainwater harvesting held by professional educators of newly established solar energy national institutes. In agreement with today’s expanded approach to education in solar energy, and with the key adult learning principle of motivation to learn, said education will include the economic and social aspects of distributed “generation” of energy and water from sunlight and rainfall.