| RMG – Horn of Africa, two rays of hope |
| Germany – It is not the desert which is advancing but man’s machines |
Four countries in East Africa are at present afflicted by the worst drought in the last 60 years; a crisis affecting 12 million people in an area the size of France. Already in December 2010, the Government of Ethiopia declared a state of emergency forecasting a tragic situation for 2011. The lack of rain in recent times has caused water sources to dry up. Inevitably following the drought other problems arise often interconnected: lack of food, the death if cattle, shortage of work, the increase in market prices for essential items (flour, oil, cereals), endemic conflicts between different tribal groups and not least disease.
Often the shortage of water is linked to poor quality. “People are unable to drink clean water,” says Fr Jean Claude Kikonde Komba, a Salesian from the community in Kinshasa, regarding the increase in cases of cholera in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “It’s what there is. In some places there isn’t any running water at all and they have to go to the river, but this isn’t clean!”
The Salesian NGO “International Voluntary Service for Development” (VIS), began working in Ethiopia during the famine in 2002-2003 focusing its attention on water and sanitation. “We did a lot of work in these years,” Emanuela Chiang, who is responsible for VIS Project in the Horn of Africa says. “ We have constantly supported the people in certain regions of Ethiopia and Eritrea in their struggles against hunger and thirst.”
VIS has been providing a daily distribution of water in accordance with the requests of the local authorities in the district of Awbare, with a water tanker which can draw water from specially built wells. In the driest months about 20,000 litres of water are distributed twice a day to 10,000 people, but this year the dry season will continue at least until September.
The continuing drought and climate change in progress, however, have caused the not very deep wells to dry up, and made it impossible to find water sources at less than 15 metres whereas in the past there was good water available at 10 metres.
VIS with other partners are working in the area of Gogti, Awbare and Dolo Addo, where there are a number of refugee camps: it is estimated that every day 1,300 are arriving from nearby Somalia at the end of their tether having walked more than 600 kilometres, fleeing from the Alshabab militias (a Group of Somali Terrorists). It is estimated that in the 4 camps there are already about 80,000 individuals all without anything.
In this way VIS continues to make its practical contribution and to attract peoples` attention in collaboration with AGIRE (Italian Agency responding to emergencies).
While international organisations such as the World Bank, the European Union, the UNO World Food Programme are getting their act together with the necessary funding, which according to FAO would be 1.6 thousand million dollars; the NGO are urging the world community not to drag their feet but to work to prevent these periodic famines by promoting a sustainable agriculture.
How far away the Third Millennium Objectives remain!
Published 26/07/2011
