Drought, a word that strikes fear into many around the globe. In California, we deal with the concept of drought almost every year, the majority of us do not face its harsh reality. When there was a drought in California between the years 2011 and 2015, California governor Jerry Brown implored citizens to reduce their water consumption and instituted a 75 gallon per person per day water allotment, a maximum that many argued in the United States was too strict. The image below shows the average Californian’s water consumption last year. As you can see, the average in the summer months was almost double our drought time tolerance. Yet as we near the end of another dry winter in California, people have become habituated to the idea of drought, and in our cities the taps continue to run.
Other areas of the world face the much harsher realities of drought. This winter a lot of news coverage has focused on Cape Town, South Africa, a city of of 3.75 million that is supposed to run out of water completely by June 4th, 20181. The city is running dry because South Africa is in the midst of its sixth year of drought.
Namibia, South Africa’s even drier neighbor has suffered immensely due to the ongoing drought. In 2016 the government mandated that all businesses reduce their water consumption by 30%: a policy that closed many businesses including the Cocoa Cola Factory in Windhoek. They also instituted a 23 gallon (90 liter ) limit on the amount of water each person is ale to use each day (1/3 the amount asked of Californians during the drought. The government also has been sending trucks of food aid out to those hardest hit by the drought since 2015. However the hard line on water conservation has not been enough. In the summer of 2017 the UN estimated 1/3rd of Namibia’s population was at risk of malnutrition due to the drought and lack of water has also been linked to stunting in 24% of the children in rural Namibia.
The drought also may have helped lead to a resurgence of Malaria in Namibia. In 2017 the number of malaria cases in the country almost doubled from the year previously. Research has shown that when places are in drought conditions, people save more water around their houses, which serve as a breeding place for mosquitos that transmit malaria.
The drought has caused crops to wither, an estimated loss of over 40,000 jobs and has kept the country in a constant state of scarcity.
Some rain finally came to Namibia last winter, but it sadly only made matters worse. In desert areas, rain often accumulates over time and then comes down all in one large downpour. Namibia is no exception. Rains last winter were some of the hardest the country had ever seen, and the subsequent floods affected over 155,000 people across the country. Namibia lacks the same large scale infrastructure projects other arid places like California has, so even thought there were rains last rainy season, much of the water was not captured and the country is still suffering form a lack of water.
An article in the Namibian last week described farmers in the southern part of the country struggling to pay for supplementary food for their animals. One farmer even discussed how he had lost 300 sheep due to the lack of water and was worried of losing more. Another article discusses how many farmers in the south are still just waiting at home for the rainy season to start so that they can plant their seeds.
In Namibia the drought is an ever present struggle to find the water needed to sustain one’s livelihood, while in California it often seems more theoretical in nature. The problem for both places though is that with global warming droughts are going to become more common. As Californians we must learn from those in Namibia and how they respond to drought in orfer to better respond ourselves to water shortages that our communities face.
- Chris LeBoa
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