Problems Associated with Drought in Africa, and Proposed Solutions

1867 Words4 Pages

Africa is a continent that suffers from many problems in many areas. The name of the continent has become synonymous with poverty, hunger and disease. These problems are connected with each other significantly. Many observers believe that the successive African crises are because of some reasons such as violence in most African countries, corruption that is rooted in the majority of African governments and stagflation which puts the continent in the mouth of hunger and unemployment(Stewart, 2004). However, there are other factors which are responsible for Africa's crises such as unstable environment, the growing population and agricultural difficulties (African ecology, 1990). In fact, climate change leads to drought in many parts of Africa, which forces many people to move from dry areas to areas where they can find a way to live. Usually this migration leads to conflict between indigenous people and migrants in order to obtain water and grazing land. The conflict may develop into war or genocide. This scenario happened in Darfur, and may occur in more than one place in Africa as long as drought is existent (Brown, 2006). This essay explains some causes of the drought in Africa, and suggests some promising solutions.

The effects of climate change are tragic and very heavy. Temperature has increased in the last century by an average of 0.7°C in Africa (Ogodo, 2006, p1). As a result of this increase, there are more than 900 million hungry people in Africa, and in less than a generation, 40% of the African wild life will be lost, and the African crops will decline by 5 % (Ogodo, 2006, p1). One of the problems which was expected in a report of the UN is that floods may kill more than 70 million people in the future in some Afric...

... middle of paper ...

...ater scarcity in South Africa by the year 2025', Water Institute of South Africa, viewed 4/8/2010.

Pearce, F 2006,'Africa barred from carbon trading', New scientist, viewed 25/3/2010.

Pellegrino ,E 2009, 'Researcher sees an ocean of possibilities with seawater irrigation', Washington , viewed 4/8/2010.

Qiu, J & Cressey,D 2008, ‘Taming the sky’, Nature’, viewed 10/4/2010.

Scott, F 2005,'Coninental divide: why Africa's are change burden is greater', Environmental health perspectives, viewed 25/3/2010.

Stewart, C 2004, ' Africa's descent into nightmare ', Australian, pp16-18.

‘The seawater foundation’, 2005,< http://www.seawaterfoundation.org/sea_eritrea.html >, viewed 6/4/2010.

Versi, A 2009,' How Africa can earn billions from carbon trading', New African, viewed 25/3/2010.

'' Zapping the salt out of seawater', 1999, Business Week, viewed 10/4/2010.

More about Problems Associated with Drought in Africa, and Proposed Solutions

Open Document