UNCCD launches ‘Global Drought Snapshot’ report at COP28 in collaboration with International Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA) Recent drought-related data based on research in the past two years and compiled by the UN point to “an unprecedented emergency on a planetary scale, where the massive impacts of human-induced droughts are only …
After a four-day-long summit of the 14-nation South African Development Community (sadc) in Lusaka, Zambia, the region's leaders have said: "We feel the problem in Zimbabwe has been exaggerated; Zimbabweans are quite adept at solving their economic problems.' The country is facing the worst economic crisis with the highest inflation …
Water-related disasters include flood, windstorms, drought, water epidemics, famine and landslides. These combine with other water-related hazards such as pollution and chemical spills, aquifer depletion, land subsidence, salinisation of arable land, marine intrusions, sea and storm surges, coastal flooding and water-borne diseases to affect ecosystems and food and livelihood security …
This World Disasters Report focuses on how women, the elderly, minorities and people with disabilities are discriminated against in disasters. It says aid agencies and governments should make more effort to avoid discrimination in their relief and recovery programmes.
Southern Africa is a region facing multiple stressors, including chronic, recurrent food insecurity and persistent threats of famine. Climate information, including seasonal climate forecasts, has been heralded as a promising tool for early-warning systems and agricultural risk management in southern Africa. Nevertheless, there is concern that climate information, for example …
function table() { var popurl="files/images/20051031/27-table.jpg" winpops=window.open(popurl,"","width=500,height=275,scrollbars=yes") } In 1959 the lives of the Mizo people in northeast India was morphed completely by the flowering of a bamboo species called Melocanna baccifera or mautak , as they call it. It led to famine, an armed insurrection, more than 3,000 people dead …
Drought-hit Cameroon is surely heading towards severe food shortage, thanks to a locusts. a recent statement by the country's agriculture and rural development minister Clobert Tchatat said swarms of migratory locusts have invaded all the six divisions of the Far North province. Radio reports from the region said the insects …
Green farms and harvest was a forgotten dream for the residents of Bartunda village in Orissa's Balangir district. They had seen the worst drought in three decades last year, not to forget the innumerable famines that parched the soil and the pockets of the farmers. It was the women of …
This report seeks to describe the context and process of global climate change, its actual or likely impacts on health, and how human societies and their governments should respond with particular focus on the health sector.
KALAHANDI . Directed by Goutam Ghosh . Produced by Soudamini Mishra . 45 minutes Pangs of persisting poverty and hunger. Agony of drought-stricken people. Silent sobs of women striving hard to dig out drinking water from the parched riverbed. Despondent villagers forced to migrate due to livelihood crisis. This is …
a recent report has blamed the International Monetary Fund (imf) and World Bank for putting pressure on Malawi, a southern African nation, to sell 28,000 metric tonnes (mt) of maize to Kenya, resulting in widespread famine in the country. The report has been released by uk-based Jubilee Research Foundation, which …
Bamboo flowering is considered a bad omen in several northeastern states of India, especially when accompanied by an increase in rodent population. It is believed to lead to famines and natural calamities. The next bamboo flowering is expected around year 2003-04. Should we prepare ourselves? On October 29, 1958 the …
Africa is reeling under a double whammy. As if the erratic weather pattern that has led to a widespread famine was not enough, corruption and mismanagement has compounded the people's misery. Two seasons of crops have been devastated, first by flood and then by drought. The continent is grappling with …
After 20 years If the bombs didn't kill, the land will. Afghanistan's natural resources are all but dead survival is an impossible dream in Afghanistan. Last December, as Afghans looked up to the deceptively beautiful sky for rain, bombs rained from endless streams of b-52 bombers
We are not starting from scratch. Our institutions have been substantially weakened. But they still exist,' says Hedayat Amin-Arsala, minister of finance of Afghanistan Interim Authority. Hidayat's statement has more meaning now when the interim government is struggling hard to convene the Loya Jirga and to chart out his country's …
life ravaged by war and drought has one hope: resilience of a people. "A good monsoon and a bit of peace will bring Afghan's life to normal,' says J Gabriel Campbell of icimod. Take Kohistan district of Kapisa province for example. Just after usa bombarded and damaged water channels in …
Ethiopia is waging a novel war against famine. Relief workers are teaching people about the soil. They are trying to counter the land degradation, caused by too many farmers crowded on small tracts, thereby destroying Ethiopia's terrain. The concerted effort of relief workers to tackle famines is bearing fruit. More …
The 2000 monsoon didn’t keep its date with Dulaiben, 60, resident of Thoridi village in Amreli district of Gujarat. Her eyes stare down the road in the hope of the water tanker that brings 5,000 litres of water for the 600 residents once every week. Her two sons migrated to …
The Employment Guarantee Scheme ( egs ) of Maharash tra is said to be the only one in the world that guaran tees employment on demand. This was for the first time an employment generation programme was conceived to create productive works at the village level. The absence of social …
During the 1999-2000 drought, Down To Earth ( dte ) reported that five villages in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh had enough water during the drought because of the water conservation activities they had undertaken. dte revisited these villages, reeling under the second successive drought. Unlike last year, some of these …
An analysis of the government's failure at drought relief shows some clear loopholes that are not very difficult to plug for a government that is worried about its political future. The most important thing is to plan decentralised, village-level institutions to both manage drought relief and come up with strategic …
