Moussoula Gado, 47, couldn’t afford a small petrol generator so she used to struggle carrying heavy buckets of water on her head from a nearby reservoir battling, usually unsuccessfully, to keep her crops alive through the increasingly long dry season in Komdè village, Ouaké Commune in north-western Benin. A new solar-powered irrigation system, paid for in part with funds gathered from taxes on the importation of second-hand cars, plastics and other ‘polluting’ goods, is set to be a game-changer for her community and Ms Gado is overjoyed.