East Africa struggles with heavy rains

01 Dec, 2019 - 00:12 0 Views
East Africa struggles with heavy rains

The Sunday Mail

Flash flooding has hit Djibouti, where the government and United Nations said the equivalent of two years’ rain fell in a single day, with several countries in East Africa, including Kenya, struggling after heavy rainfall.

Rainfall from October to mid-November has been up to 300 percent above average in the greater Horn of Africa region, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

On Thursday, a joint Djibouti-UN statement said up to a quarter of a million people have been affected in recent days in the country on the Red Sea that is home to military bases for the United States, China and others.

With heavy rains forecast through the end of the month, that number could grow. Djibouti has been called one of the world’s most vulnerable non-island nations in the face of climate change as sea levels rise. Neighbouring Somalia has been hit hard by recent flooding as well.

Deadly floods in Kenya

In Kenya, East Africa’s economic hub, the government said 120 people have been killed in flooding and mudslides during an unusually severe rainy season.

More than 60 people died over the weekend in West Pokot county.

Tens of thousands of people across the country have been displaced, while infrastructure has been damaged, making aid delivery more difficult. Doctors are worried that diseases, especially water-borne diseases, might spread.

“We have health issues, and it is wounds, it is children who are coming up with pneumonia, it is diarrhoeal illnesses,” said Doctor Taabu Simiu at the West Pokot County Referral Hospital.

‘Life here is terrible’

Some survivors are struggling.

“Life here is terrible because we do not have money, because if someone had their money in the house it was all swept away by the floods,” one survivor, Cherish Limansin, said.

“It is only poverty staring at us here. We woke up with nothing. If it wasn’t for the little help we get, we would have nothing and so far today we have eaten nothing.”

One local official expressed frustration over relief efforts, asserting that the national government’s response to the disaster has been slow and insufficient. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Two villages with almost 5 000 residents in total remain cut off from the rest of the world for several days after the flooding, said West Pokot county disaster management official Monicah Kalinyong’ar.

Governor John Lonyang’apuo said people lacked food because of the slow pace of assistance, saying a helicopter should be operating full time for the duration of the relief efforts.

Spokesman Cyrus Oguna denied that the national government was frustrating relief efforts, saying Kenya’s military was helping to repair damaged roads.

Drought-hit South Africa braces for fresh heatwave

Meanwhile, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) warned of a heatwave that was expected to hit at least four provinces of the drought-hit country last week.

The warnings stretch from Port Elizabeth in the south through to Johannesburg, Pretoria and up to the border with Zimbabwe.

South Africa is currently in late spring.

While high temperatures are expected, the effect of higher-than-average temperatures along with the continuing drought has worried the farmers.

The region’s temperatures are rising at twice the global average, according to the International Panel on Climate Change. In much of South Africa, an unusually hot, dry spring has seen water supplies significantly reduce.

SAWS expects lower-than-normal rainfall from November to January over the eastern parts of the country.

The rainy season for most of South Africa is November through to March, and forecasts predict below-normal rainfall until March 2020, with higher temperatures across the country — all coinciding with the most crucial time for crop yields, which run from October until February.

Agricultural organisation AgriSA met earlier in November to discuss the continuing drought in South Africa, which has plagued the country since 2012.

Willem Symington of Agri Northern Cape said: “The Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and the Limpopo area should have had a disaster declared more than a year ago.”

Of these regions, three are under heatwave warnings last week.

As summer sets in, the weather outlook in the country is not encouraging.  — Al Jazeera and news agencies

 

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