By Jeffrey Gettleman GALKAIYO, Somalia — Ahmed Mahamoud Hassan has probably one of the worst jobs on the planet: drought chairman of the Galmudug region of Somalia, one of the hottest, driest, poorest patches of one of the world’s most utterly failed states. His job is to feed people in a place where there is […]
By Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The judge overseeing the tri-state water wars case on Monday again ruled against Georgia and all but told the state it should stop litigating claims to Lake Lanier water rights and settle the case once and for all. In a three-page order, Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson frowned […]
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – As many as 6.2 million Ethiopians need emergency humanitarian assistance due to severe drought, an official from the Oxfam charity said on Monday. The Ethiopian government puts the number in need at 5.3 million. Pastoralist communities in the country’s southern Borena area have been particularly hard hit by the lack of […]
Galkayo, Somalia (AFP) Oct 4, 2009 – Living in twig and cloth shelters after fleeing raging violence in Mogadishu, a severe drought has worsened the misery of thousands of Somalis settled outside the central town of Galkayo. The prolonged drought affecting millions across war-ravaged Somalia is forcing more people into Margaga camp, which was initially […]
By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – African farmers said on Monday floods and droughts expected to worsen with climate change have already brought poor harvests, and women workers are turning to prostitution and falling victim to HIV/AIDS. Testifying at the first pan-African climate hearings, the farmers’ stories will be relayed at December’s climate talks […]
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — Drought could parch close to 70 percent of the planet’s soil by 2025 unless countries implement policies to slow desertification, a senior United Nations official has warned. “If we cannot find a solution to this problem… in 2025, close to 70 percent could be affected,” Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the […]
By Reenita Malhotra, for CNN (CNN) — The glaciers in the Himalayas are receding quicker than those in other parts of the world and could disappear altogether by 2035 according to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. The result of this deglaciation could be conflict as Himalayan glacial runoff has an essential […]
Rotting carcasses testify to the scale of the disaster looming in East Africa. By Daniel Howden, from Marsabit, Kenya On the plains of Marsabit the heat is so intense the bush seems to shiver. The leafless scrub, bleached white by the sun, looks like a forest of fake Christmas trees. Carcasses of cattle and camels […]
By Robert Waweru TURKANA, Kenya (Reuters) – Villagers in northwest Kenya squat in the sparse shade of an acacia tree and watch as aid workers slaughter their prized goats before distributing the meat to hungry people waiting for relief food. Goats are the economic lifeblood of the minority Turkana tribe, who live around Kenya’s […]
New Delhi (AFP) Sept 30, 2009 – India has suffered its worst drought since 1972, the official weather office said on Wednesday, with rains 23 percent below average at the end of the country’s four-month monsoon season. “India’s 2009 monsoon rainfall has been the worst since 1972,” a spokesperson for the Meteorological Department, P.K. Bandhopadhyay, […]
