Millions Hungry as Warming Shifts Seasons: Oxfam
Date: 07-Jul-09
Country: UGANDA
Author: Frank Nyakairu
Millions Hungry as Warming Shifts Seasons: Oxfam Photo: James Akena
A woman picks wild vegetable in Uganda's Karamoja region,
700km (420 miles) northeast of Capital Kampala, were over one million people
face starvation due to prolonged drought.
Photo: James Akena
NASSAPIR, Uganda - The rainmakers were convinced the god was angry.
Holding a sheep on its hind legs, a young man sank a spear into its neck.
Those present drank its blood and splashed the rest around the local water
catchment area in the hope of appeasing Ekipe, the rain god.
But rituals like this in Nassapir village, in northeastern Uganda's
semi-arid and under-developed Karamoja region, no longer seem to pay off.
"We don't know why the god is no longer answering our requests," said
Laurien Lokwareng, an elder of the Jie ethnic group. "For years, we used to
ask the god for rain and we got it in abundance, but we have had four years
without enough rain now, and this is very strange."
In a new report, global aid agency Oxfam says impoverished communities like
Nassapir are already being hit hard by the effects of global warming,
including increased drought.
Without international funding to help them cope and tough targets for cuts
in greenhouse gas emissions, the food, water, health and livelihoods of
hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will be put at even
greater risk.
Oxfam says interviews it carried out with farmers in 15 countries in Africa,
Asia and Latin America show that seasons are shrinking in number and
variety.
This is destroying harvests, pushing farmers to abandon traditional crops
and causing widespread hunger -- which, the agency predicts, will likely be
"climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future."
Rainfall is reported to be more erratic, shorter and more violent. Unusual
weather events -- including storms, drier spells and fluctuating
temperatures -- are happening more often. And farmers say winds and storms
have got stronger.
"We think that 'changing seasonality' may be one of the most significant
impacts of climate change for poor farmers, and that is happening now," said
Oxfam program researcher John Magrath in the report.
INCREASED HUNGER
Savio Carvalho, Oxfam's climate change adviser for the developing world,
told Reuters global warming was already affecting people across Africa, and
would wipe out efforts to tackle poverty without urgent action like massive
tree planting.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, (yields of) maize, which is a staple crop, will
decrease by 15 percent by 2020 and that is a big number," he said.
"Drought is now happening on a yearly basis, and there is increased hunger
and starvation because of declining food stocks, as we see here in Karamoja,"
added Carvalho.
Uganda's Health Ministry says the malnutrition rate in the region -- which
has experienced 14 droughts in 25 years -- is 19 percent. The U.N. World
Food Program provides food aid to at least 970,000 of Karamoja's 1.1 million
people.
Oxfam also warns that in places like Karamoja -- already plagued by high
levels of violence due to armed cattle raids between ethnic groups --
failure to improve access to water is likely to exacerbate conflict.
The report says the worst effects of climate change on hunger and poverty
can be avoided if communities and governments start adapting now.
The agency is taking practical steps, building a dam in Nassapir to capture
any rain that does fall for people and animals.
Oxfam's Carvalho also recommended developing drought-tolerant maize seeds,
and experimenting with alternative sources of energy in poor rural areas,
where most people rely on cutting down trees for firewood and construction.
He said there were several possibilities in Kotido, the district that
includes Nassapir.
"Poverty is compounded when people don't have access to energy, and people
in places like Kotido could start exploring bio-gas from cow dung and solar
energy from the abundant sunshine, with a bit of investment," Carvalho said.
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