« Lands. Life. Heritage: From a precarious world to a prosperous future “. The title of the meeting is already ringing the alarm bell. The dozen heads of state expected will have to tackle the endangered health of the land, already 40% degraded according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
If the projected plans are ambitious (restoration of a billion hectares of land by 2030, incentive for the sustainability of land use), the consequences, in the event of inaction, might be disastrous for climate, biodiversity and livelihoods.
Drought and hunger in the Horn of Africa
From southern Ethiopia to northern Kenya via Somalia, the Horn of Africa is facing a drought that is alarming humanitarian organizations, with nearly 20 million people at risk of hunger.
(Re)read: Ethiopia: an unprecedented drought
In these regions where the population lives mainly from livestock and agriculture, the last three rainy seasons since the end of 2020 have been marked by low rainfall, in addition to an invasion of locusts which ravaged crops between 2019 and 2021.
One month following the theoretical start of the rainy season, “the number of people who are hungry due to drought might skyrocket from the current estimate of 14 million to 20 million in 2022“, declared in April the World Food Program (WFP).
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Nearly 40% of Somalia’s population, or six million people, face extreme levels of food insecurity and some areas are likely already experiencing famine. In Ethiopia, 6.5 million people face a “severe food insecurity“, as well as 3.5 million people in Kenya, according to the agency.
Advance of the desert in Morocco
Since the 1980s, the sand has continued to advance on the town of Er-Rissani, whose surroundings offer a spectacle of desolation. As far as the eye can see, hundreds of palm trees rot on a cracked ocher earth. With the end of the 20th century came the long periods of drought and the departure of the peasants. Agriculture has become marginal.
For centuries, the oases there have formed an impregnable shield once morest desertification. They are now suffering from drought and a sharp drop in the water table – a consequence of its overexploitation and poor management of surface water – and growing urbanization.
Oases are considered the most vulnerable ecosystems – at “high risk” – in the face of climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Their disappearance would have serious environmental consequences, but also economic, social, cultural…
Lack of water in Iraq
In Iraq, water reserves have halved compared to 2021. The phenomenon has been attributed to repeated droughts, a drop in rainfall and a drop in river flow.
Iraq, rich in hydrocarbons, is one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change and desertification. The water issue is a key issue for this semi-desert country of 41 million inhabitants.
“The available water reserves are much lower than what we had last year (in 2021), by around 50%, due to the low rainfall and the quantities (of water) arriving from neighboring countries“, indicated on April 21 Aoun Dhiab, senior adviser to the Ministry of Water Resources.
It is a warning on how to use (water supplies). Aoun Dhiab, Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources
“It is a warning on how to use (the water supply) next summer and during the winter. We take these factors into account when planning for the agricultural sector“, added the adviser
Drought and water shortages have already forced Iraq to halve cultivated areas for the 2021-2022 winter season. The World Bank (WB) has estimated that in the absence of appropriate policies, Iraq might experience a 20% drop in its available freshwater resources by 2050.
