The Stream, October 23, 2024: In Southern Africa’s Worst Drought In 100 Years, Millions Face Malnourishment

People carry their belongings in search of shelter, in Feni, a city in eastern Bangladesh that suffered from flooding in August 2024. Photo © UNICEF/UNI631513/Mukut

YOUR GLOBAL RUNDOWN

More than six months of rain fell in two days in southeastern France, where businesses and homes were wrecked and power was lost in the deluge.
Food prices have surged by 20 percent in Bangladesh following the loss of more than one million tons of rice and 200,000 tons of vegetables to monsoon flooding.
Scientists in Japan are working to genetically modify the country’s most popular rice variety to make it more resilient to hotter weather.
In the worst drought to hit southern Africa in 100 years, millions of people face malnourishment as experts fear the crisis will worsen in the months ahead.

In drought-struck Kenya, pastoralists are selling their cattle in favor of camels, who are more resistant to climate-changed conditions.

“Before the drought, I owned a herd of 30 cattle. But when the drought hit, all but one of the cattle died. Now I am only left with one…Camels are easier to rear. They feed on shrubs and survive in harsher conditions.” — Abdullahi Mohamud, a camel herder.

During the 2020 drought in Kenya, up to 2.6 million cattle died, unable to adapt to the parched conditions. As dry realities persist in the region, pastoralists and herders are increasingly selling off their cattle livestock in favor of camels, who are more resistant to water shortages, can survive even when losing 30 percent of their body weight, and have a higher milk yield, DW reports.

One difficulty of this switch, though, is that camels take longer to reproduce, impacting the long-term economics of herders. But many are optimistic that this is a temporary situation, remaining hopeful that when the rains return, they can sell camels to repurchase cattle.

— Christian Thorsberg, Interim Stream Editor

Recent WaterNews from Circle of Blue

2024 Election: State and Local Voters Consider Tax Increases for Water Protection — Funds would provide for land and water conservation.
Giant Storms, Growing Stronger, Inundate an Unprepared Planet — Climate change produces massive rains that are overwhelming the capacity to adapt.

The Lead

A state of disaster has been declared in Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as more than 27 million people are now affected by a “full-scale humanitarian catastrophe” induced by levels of drought the region hasn’t experienced in roughly a century, Al Jazeera reports. An estimated 68 million people need some form of assistance.

Amidst a year of historically low precipitation, which began with the effects of El Niño and has continued with climate change-linked higher-than-average temperatures, Zambia has lost 70 percent of its harvest, while Zimbabwe has lost 80 percent. Roughly 21 million children face malnourishment and “will be lucky to receive one meal per day.”

With the region’s annual lean season just beginning and expected to extend through next March or April, “each month is expected to be worse than the previous one,” Tomson Phiri, a spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program, told Al Jazeera.

This Week’s Top Water Stories, Told In Numbers

27.5

Inches of rain which fell in some parts of southeastern France in a span of 48 hours late last week. The deluge destroyed businesses and homes as muddy water overtopped railway tracks and roads, France24 reports. Six departments just south of Lyon, a city of roughly half a million people, were placed on red flood alert, while significant power outages swept through the Ardèche region. Fortunately, no casualties have been reported and the water has begun to recede. The amount of rain which fell across two days equaled the average rainfall the region receives in roughly six months.

1.1 million

Metric tons of rice Bangladesh’s farmers have lost to monsoon flooding and torrential runoff over the past three months, mainly as a result of two large waves of storms — one in August and one in October, Reuters reports. Bangladesh is the world’s third-largest rice producer (producing 40 million tons per year), but the government will be importing 500,000 tons of rice and is expected to allow the private sector to soon follow suit. Reckoning with the additional loss of 200,000 tons of vegetables due to flooding, residents have seen grocery costs increase by roughly 20 percent over the summer. The country as a whole has lost an estimated $380 million.

On the Radar

Scientists in Japan have identified a sequence within the DNA of rice which makes some varieties of the grain more resistant to extreme heat, the New York Times reports. Now, they are attempting to crossbreed this genetic signature with Koshihikari, which for over 40 years has remained the country’s top-selling rice variety but suffers when exposed to higher temperatures, as has been the trend in recent growing seasons. To preserve the future of this rice and make it more resilient within future warming scenarios, especially as rainfall and snowmelt become increasingly erratic, researchers continue to analyze and test thousands of hybrid rice samples.

More Water News

Rhine River Project: On the Swiss-Austrian border, a proposed project to diversify and widen the Rhine’s banks — making the river more flood-resistant and animal-friendly, at the expense of existing farmland — is gaining both traction and critics as it moves forward, DW reports.

Australia PFAS: A new proposal from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, if approved, would lower the acceptable levels of four main PFAS chemicals in the country’s drinking water, the Guardian reports.

Christian Thorsberg

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer from Chicago. He is passionate about climate and cultural phenomena that often appear slow or invisible, and he examines these themes in his journalism, poetry, and fiction.