Coping with Dry Season Disasters and Phenomena

Coping with Dry Season

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        Dry season in Trinidad and Tobago traditionally runs from February to May, though this can vary. The season is accordingly associated with decreased rainfall, hot temperatures, and dry weather. This results in conditions and issues of water scarcity, fires, drought, reduced air quality, and agricultural loss. During the dry season, it becomes essential to take measures that enable the healthy growth of plants and agricultural yields. This includes methods such as: 

Creating Irrigation Systems 

Irrigation is pivotal for crop growth, and it acts as a means of facilitating the transportation of water in soil. Irrigation systems can be made water efficient through using methods such as the drip irrigation system, which reduces evaporation levels. 

Using Mulch and Crop Covers 

Mulch and crop covers provide a protective layer that shield the earth from direct contact with the sun. This ensures the retention of moisture in the soil, and reduces evaporation. Methods such as composting provide a similar effect while simultaneously offering a sustainable use for food scraps, and a nutritive substance that encourages plant health. 

Planning Planting 

 Crops can be planted in smaller dense areas to facilitate water efficient watering systems, such as hydroponic systems. It further ensures that less water can be used to keep the soil moist. New technologies and innovations, such as vertical farming can assist in this as well. 

Repair Leaks and Maintain Systems 

During the Dry season, a key concern centers on water scarcity. Accordingly, leaks and poorly maintained irrigation systems can result in water wastage and shortages over time. Replacing parts and having regular checks promotes water conservation through reducing the risk of water wastage. 

Using Innovative Water Collection Methods 

Using innovative methods of water collection can assist in ensuring that crops are kept hydrated and healthy. This might include the collection of rainwater, collection of water condensation from air conditioning units, and the recycling and use of filtered greywater from certain domestic uses. 

       There are many methods of collecting, conserving, and responsibly using water, especially when it comes to issues associated with agriculture and crop health during the dry season and drought. 

Please feel free to suggest and comment any other methods that might act against the risks associated with the dry season that can be detrimental to crop health.

Methods of Repairing

Repair

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    The concept of “Repair” is pivotal to achieving sustainability. In context of the 5 R's, it implies the restoration of something that might otherwise be seen as broken or unusable. While recycling and reusing such items provides a valuable solution for limiting waste production and accumulation, these same products are often easily repairable. Repairing is thus not only beneficial from a lens of sustainability and waste reduction, but it also takes into account issues of consumerism, economic constraints, and value. 

There are accordingly several methods of repairing that can be implemented into daily life. These can include:

Consulting Professionals in the Field 

    Many repairable items are often thrown away because it is more convenient or people simply lack the technical know-how to make the amendments required. For technological possessions, such as televisions and smart-phones, it is impractical for individuals to make the repairs on their own unless they have specialized in the field themselves. These items can however be repaired through having persons within the field repair them, likely at the fraction of the cost of purchasing a new version of the broken product. 

Repairing as a Hobby , Skill, and Opportunity 

    For certain types of repairing, individuals can consider building their skills through learning how to execute certain repairs. These skills can also be used as a method of working on recreational projects and developing hobbies. This may be exemplified by sewing or furniture repair. As people work on mending rips in different fabrics or replacing broken zippers, they can improve their sewing skills and diversify their interests by eventually moving into sewing clothing and different cloth materials from scratch. This might also create opportunities for work and business. For example, as someone begins working on minor repairs for their furniture by buffering scratches, restoring artistic finishes, painting surfaces, or reattaching broken chair legs, they can develop their abilities and eventually transform these interests into a viable business. 

Investing in Products that Promote the Longevity of Items

    Citizens can also consider investing in items that enable the repair and longevity of certain items. Considering the illustration of knives, cutlasses, and other widely used blades, long term use in the kitchen or in yard work can result in them becoming blunt, dull, and ineffective. Investing in a knife sharpener can ensure that dullness is easily repaired and it thus lengthens the life of commonly used blades. 

Upcycling 

    In tandem with reusing and repurposing items, upcycling suggests that a broken product can be repaired and improved in some new way. This might be illustrated by clothing that has been tarnished in some way. Clothing with holes can be up-cycled through using embroidered patterns to revitalize the article of clothing and mend holes in the fabric. Likewise, clothing which bleach-spots or stains can be repaired through dyeing them innovatively with methods such as tie dying. 

    Repairing, in short, allows individuals to limit the waste that they produce. It can simultaneously provide a cost-efficient mode of life that encourages individuals to be more mindful of the items that they own. It may not always be the most feasible option since certain items can be quite costly to repair, and older models of items become obsolete and non-repairable due to technological advancements, and the issue of supply and demand. However, repairing, where possible, can still offer benefits in living sustainably.

Local Eco Business Feature: So Eco TT

So Eco
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    The mainstream use of disposable and non-biodegradable products has largely contributed to widespread pollution and poor waste disposal. It becomes pivotal to make movements and changes that consider both reusable and biodegradable alternatives to many of the single-use items that we use on a daily basis. 

    

    As the Sustainable Shifts project enters 2022, the blog hopes to feature another local eco-business in Trinidad and Tobago that deals with eco-friendly and reusable baby products with a focus on cloth diapers. 

    Ms. Samantha Joseph reflects on the birth of her sons as the key inspiration for the start of her business. She notes that she has always been an eco-conscious person, and her pregnancy with her son encouraged her search for alternative ways to diaper him. She explains that through online research, she began exploring modern ways of using cloth diapers. This prompted her to use cloth diapers on her son from his birth to potty training stage. Ms. Joseph stated that she ordered them each month and slowly added to her stash. She would recommend them to her friends who had babies, and while some did not like them, there were others that did. People who saw her son in them would always ask her about it, and she echoed that she was always very excited to educate them. She justifies that this led her to fall in love with modern cloth diapers. 

    Her pregnancy with her second son accordingly inspired her to start a business of her own. She relayed that she knew she wanted to have an eco-friendly business, but was not sure about what products she should offer. She deliberated selling the everyday eco-friendly products that were already mainstream until it came to her that she should sell something that she was passionate about and had experience with. This resulted in her deciding to sell cloth diapers and cloth diapering accessories as a “one stop shop for cloth diapering.” 

     Ms. Joseph contends that her primary aim is to help make modern cloth diapers mainstream by educating Trinbagonians about modern cloth diapers, showing them that there is a sustainable alternative to cloth diapering their baby that is both eco-friendly and financially-friendly. She adds that she aims to show Trinbagonians that it is easier than it looks by giving them a glimpse of her daily life experiences in cloth diapering her son and offering quality products for affordable prices. 

    She summarizes the core principles and values of So Eco TT include: 

• being as eco-friendly as possible in every aspect of the business & lifestyle. 
• being as transparent and honest with her audience as she can. 

    She reiterates that So Eco TT has a unique and specific niche, and it hence offers modern cloth diapers and most of the associated accessories for cloth diapering 'little ones'. 

    Ms. Joseph affirms that through her cloth diapers, she aims to promote environmentalism, and support issues of climate justice. She emphasizes that on average, a baby can go through between 2,000 and 2,200 diapers in their first year. Modern cloth diapers hence eliminate the need for disposable diapers, and offer a method of preventing a large quantity of them from entering local landfills. Disposable diapers end up almost exclusively in landfills, where they emit methane, a greenhouse gas that she explicates is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Modern cloth diapers are moreover beneficial as they can also be reused for multiple babies over time.  

    Ms. Joseph reflects that a part of the primary process of creating a sustainable business involved conducting adequate research. She expresses that the majority of the public have little concern for sustainability, and citizens therefore need to be convinced on why sustainable changes are pivotal from all perspectives and in all aspects of daily life. She notes that her business is roughly 9 months old, and she has not yet encountered any major challenges that have hindered her. She contends that this might be because she does not look at obstacles as challenges, but rather as new ways and opportunities to be innovative. 

    Ms. Joseph reiterates that partaking in sustainable and eco-friendly practices can be made more mainstream. She details that her vision for the future of the Caribbean from a sustainable lens involves bringing traditional methods of living back in more modern versions. Traditional practices, such as using cloth diapers, were more eco-friendly compared to the modern single-use mode of life. Accordingly, diapering systems were previously cloth with pins, and now they are cloth with convenient snaps. In this same way, pads were once cloth, and now there are modern cloth pads. Thrifting and reusing items is now a ‘big thing’, when they were traditionally known as ‘hand me downs’. Bringing the old systems that worked well into the new world hence has tremendous potential for creating widespread and effective change. She underscores that this is the only way humans can preserve, reconnect with, and save their planet. 

    For more information on So Eco TT and their services, or to contact Ms. Joseph, you can reach out to her page on Instagram and Facebook @soeco.tt