Between 2006 and 2011, Syria experienced a drought so bad, 75 percent of the country’s farms failed, and 85 percent of livestock died, reports VICE.
As a result, as many as 1,5 million Syrians were forced to migrate to urban centres and, well, we all know how well that ended: civil war.
Now more than ever, countries need to do as much as they can to keep global temperature rise under control. Otherwise, as suggested by a 2014 UN water scarcity report, armed conflict fuelled by water scarcity could become a common event in our lifetime.
So, before other regions begin to mirror the worst of the knock-on effects of poorly managed environmental disasters, it’s time we took notes from Syria so as to avoid a similar humanitarian problem here in South Africa.
But we know this, right?
As residents of Cape Town, this year we have experienced some of the worst drought conditions ever recorded. Currently exercising level 4b water restrictions, if winter doesn’t pull us through we might be in a whole lot more trouble than we care to admit.
And we’re not the only ones dealing with it now.
As the Earth’s overall temperature rises, heavy floods, extreme weather, and prolonged droughts will take hold.
Let’s take a look at other regions in the middle of disastrous droughts:
Southern Europe
The drought spread across southern Europe is not only fuelling wildfires in Italy and Spain, but has also reduced cereal production to its lowest level in the last 20 years, as well as hitting other regional crops including olives and almonds.
This summer, 10 regions across Italy have called for a state of emergency to be declared, after the country suffered its second-driest spring in 60 years. Rainfall in the first six months of the year was also down 33 percent.
The country made headlines as the Pope stopped the flow of water in fountains throughout the Vatican.
North Korea
Its worst drought since 2001, the current plight in North Korea has prompted officials to “fear an increase in food shortage in the communist country that has suffered serious famine for years,” reports Fox News:
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization [sic] released the report on Thursday that detailed a prolonged dry period in North Korea from April to June, an important time for crop development.
Its production of staple crops such as rice, corn, potatoes and soybeans has been damaged, “threatening food security for a large part of its population,” the agency said.
According to the BBC, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died during a widespread famine in the 1990s and, although rain did eventually come in July, it was too late for crops to adequately develop.
Western states of the USA
For 11 of the past 14 years, much of the American West has experienced severe drought. From California across to Texas and Oklahoma, the states are once again “experiencing debilitating 2017 droughts that are forcing farmers and politicians to clamour for federal relief,” reports Xinhuanet.
AU News reports that the American Society of Civil Engineers claims the “US needs to spend $255 million in the next five years to preserve its water infrastructure, but there are only plans to spend half that”.
Eastern regions of Africa
From Yemen to Tanzania, more than 20 million people are at risk of starvation in what aid workers call the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, reports CS Monitor.
Two countries hit the hardest are currently Kenya and Ethiopia, with the latter’s government funnelling more than $700 million of its own money into drought relief efforts.
Families in Kenya are struggling as they are “camped by dry wells, livestock has become too skinny to be eaten or sold, and armed conflict is flaring up between cattle grazers,” reports VICE. More from the Irish Examiner:
The drought in the north of the country is the worst in living memory; worse even than the drought of 2011 which left the region teetering on the brink of famine. The Turkana region of northern Kenya has been left decimated by the drought, with food stocks long since extinguished and millions of people facing into long months of hunger.
And there you have it.
If we don’t prepare for the inevitable together, there’s no one else to point fingers at other than ourselves.
Buckle up, Cape Town, we’re in for one hell of a ride.
Check out THIS water tool for a kick up the backside.
[source:irishexaminer&ewn&xinhuanet&foxnews&BBC&vice&csmonitor&aunews&vice]
