The World Meteorological Organization (OMM) points to the risk of massive population displacements linked to the scarcity of water resources.
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The rise in temperatures, the rise in the level of the seas faster than the global average, the intensification of extreme climatic phenomena – droughts, floods, heat waves … – mortgage the conditions of existence on the one hand of the population of the continent, according to the report on the state of the climate of Africa published Thursday, September 8 by the World Meteorological Organization (OMM). The third edition of this report lists the climatic “anomalies” observed in 2021. One year considered the third or fourth hot year ever recorded on the continent, according to the reference used.
These atypical data materialize the great disruption at work in the region of the world the least emitting greenhouse gases, in particular for rural populations dependent on natural resources to survive. “The rainfall regimes are disturbed, the glaciers disappear and the main lakes shrink,” summarizes the report.
famines, floods, diseases
Behind this general observation arises an enumeration of large -scale crises: the drought always at work in the horn of Africa, with its millions of people in severe food crisis or famine announced as in Somalia; Historical drought also in southern Madagascar and to a lesser extent in the majority of the Sahel countries; The floods then caused by brutal rains as in South Sudan, where for the third consecutive year in 2021, the country faced the overflow of the lakes and rivers of the upstream basin of the Nile.
More to the East, in Niger, 200,000 people had to be moved due to the floods, 70 perished. This year, the balance sheet will be more heavier: more than a hundred victims have been counted since June while the authorities anticipate floods until the end of September. The report also highlights the consequences of the floods that have occurred in Nigeria on the dissemination of a cholera epidemic.
A place is also made to dust and sand storms that have plunged into the fog part of Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Algeria driving locally to the closure of several ports and suspension of aerial links.
700 million displaced climatic in 2030?
In a context of always strong demographic growth, the authors fear above all the effects of the climate crisis on access to water: that necessary for human consumption, to breeding in pastoral areas, to the Agricultural production but also to the operation of hydroelectric dams for the supply of electricity. “250 million people may be affected by water shortages by 2030 and 700 million people may be forced to move,” they warn. “It is likely that migration related to climate will help concentrate populations and create overcrowded and informal areas. All of this increases the risks of tensions and conflicts between communities.” Figures that are difficult to devote, which were already in the conclusions of the intergovernmental group report on the evolution of the climate published in February.
The scarcity of resources has already precipitated the clashes in northern Cameroon causing several thousand internal displaced and more than 30,000 refugees in neighboring Chad in December 2021, recalls the report by citing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Beyond the recommendations calling for more financial means to allow populations to adapt to future climatic shocks, the report underlines in conclusion the urgency of providing countries with early alert systems to reduce the ‘Impact of disasters. Africa is the least equipped world region, with only 40 % of the population covered.