We are not even able to stop the desertification of Sahel (the south of the Sahara desert), while all that is needed is to move part of the Niger stream to its previous bed.
At the moment, they're just trying to work out who's in charge there! It's very difficult to make progress when there are limited resources and infrastructure for even measuring where the water comes from, what are the transit losses and who consumes it. We do know that at least the beginnings of collecting needed information has started by the world Hydrological Observation System. In their pilot program, obstacles were a lack of an operating manual for their software and hard ware operating systems, lack of motivation or implementation by the authorities in the various component territories. Nevertheless, despite these monumental confounding issues, a considerable body of information has been assembled. Read this "WORLD HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE OBSERVING SYSTEM"
here.
Now in terraforming Mars, the work processes that are the fabric and spine of NAASA's space exploration approaches, has prepared us. We're in a far better position to devise practical plans for Mars settlement. Our skills have already been already demonstrated and developed in the trips to the moon, assembly and operating of the Space Stations, Telescopes, navigation and military satellites. These, have, of necessity produced the experience we need for the next tentative steps to colonize Mars. We have established the kind of research, documentation, command and control and even contingency systems) needed for such long range ambitious engineering projects. What's still missing, (besides funding and design), is the
cultural order that would apply in such a colony! Would there be places of worship? I guess it would be modeled on the cultural values, brotherhood, command and social structure of the International space Station. (However, once enough colonists are there, what of social justice, and criminal behavior? So besides engineering and finance there's a lot more work to do! I expect it would be akin to living on a battleship; not much room for dissent!)
Yes, there have been missteps such as the mistake in mixing mm with fractions of an inch in the Hubble telescope, later corrected, but we've learned a lot. I've no doubt that industry and government will make baby steps in exploring Mars. One simple gesture would be to bring some of that soil back and simply plant seeds in it! That would be very exciting!
In any case, what we are seeing, the river bed soil of Mars, is very exciting. The results of this work will be the basis of entirely new civilizations, as different from mother earth as Brazil is to Portugal, the USA is to the U.K. or Cameroons is to France!
Asher