Waiting for Rain or Death

War, drought and rising food prices are continuing to ravage the horn of Africa. According to the UK-based charity Oxfam an estimated nine to 13 million people in the region are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It hasn't rained in the area in eleven months.

It is the second serious drought in the region in three years, it says.

Oxfam is calling on donors to increase aid levels to the region.

The call follows another warning on Tuesday from the UN World Food Programme, saying that more than 14 million people in the Horn of Africa needed food aid because of drought and rising food and fuel prices.

"The cost of food has escalated by up to 500% in some places, leaving people who have suffered drought after drought in utter destitution," says Oxfam's Rob McNeil, who has just returned from the Somali and Afar regions of Ethiopia.

• In Somalia, 2.6 million (35% of the population) require emergency assistance, Oxfam says. This could increase to half the population of the country (3.5 million) by the end of 2008. Between 18% and 24% of children are acutely malnourished
• In Ethiopia, the government estimates 4.6 million people are now in need of emergency food assistance. This has more than doubled from 2.2 million in need of help at the beginning of this year. Some 75,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition in drought-stricken areas, the government says
• In Turkana, northern Kenya, an Oxfam survey showed 25% of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, the highest in the country

You don't see much about this in the American media since 14 million black people on the verge of starving to death isn't really a big deal in this country. You have to turn to the foreign news sources like the BBC to find out this stuff. The majority of these people live on less than $1 a day, if that and these huge increases in price for the basic foods are a tragedy.

Not a pleasant post so early in the morning but this needs to be in our consciousness as we decide on our next leader. The world is bigger than the U.S. and while we represent only a few percent of the world's population we are responsible for consuming some 25% of it's resources.

Global Food Crisis Gets Worse

As I have mentioned here before and even as recently as yesterday the cost of food has skyrocketed in the last year. There are a variety of reasons including crop failures related to drought and such but the biggest cause is diverting food to biofuels (more profit to be had) and the increasing cost of fuel. The insane war in Iraq has added dramatically to the cost of oil.

Now we have the World Food Programme, for the first time in its history, asking for money.

Faced with the dramatically spiralling costs of wheat, rice and corn, the World Food Programme has made an unprecedented appeal for at least $500m (£250m) to help it continue supplying food aid to 73 million needy people this year.

[snip]

The WFP estimates that food prices rose by 55 per cent between June and the end of February, meaning it needed an extra $500m on top of the $2.9bn it had already budgeted for. However, prices have risen a further 20 per cent in the past three weeks, meaning the organisation's emergency shortfall could, in reality, be closer to $700m.

[snip]

Rice last week jumped to a three-decade high, experiencing the same sort of spike that has already affected wheat, corn and soybeans. The price of these staple foods has been driven skywards by increased demand for food from the newly prospering parts of south and east Asia, damage to crops by natural disasters, and by the growing demand for biofuels. "It's a global phenomenon which is hitting the most vulnerable populations hard," Ms Sheeran said.

In Bangladesh, those on a dollar a day are dropping the protein element of their diet because they can only afford the basic staple rice. "And even those earning $2 a day are forced into coping strategies which could lead to a malnutrition crisis," Ms Sheeran said. "They are giving up health or educational needs to get a basic food budget."

It is the people eking out an existence on 50 cents per day that are suffering most, however, like people in some parts of El Salvador who have been forced to halve their nutritional intake. "We now have a situation where there's a lot of food on the shelves but people cannot afford it," Ms Sheeran said.

We, in the more prosperous countries, don't think about it on a daily basis but, as an example, a substantial percentage of the population across southern Africa eats mealy-meal, which is cooked corn meal. Sometimes they may get a few lentils or beans and on a rare occasion some meat to mix in but this is what they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner if, in fact, they can even afford three meals a day. Just small increases in the cost of corn hit these people hard. Over a billion people in the world today eek out an existence on a dollar or less per day. This is another subject that needs to be on the agenda when we are talking about what the next American administration is going to be.
Let's not even discuss the trillions of dollars being wasted in Iraq... only a fraction of which could solve this problem globally and permanently.

Tar Heels Too!

While I have been focusing on the problems here in North Georgia and Atlanta it is also beginning to be a big problem for the Raleigh and Durham areas as well. They have water problems too. Looks like they are down to less than two months worth of water as well.

DURHAM - With central North Carolina suffering through the worst drought on record and a projected dry winter ahead, the Triangle is as close as it has ever been to severe restrictions limiting water use to hygiene and extinguishing fires.

Durham, with just 59 days left in its main water supply, could be on the front lines of this worst-case scenario.

Up to now, the prospect has been too far-fetched to entertain in detail, which is why there are few specifics in Durham ordinances about what would happen if the drought doesn't let up. Raleigh also lacks a set plan for an end-times-type drought.

I still don't think the majority of people here in the metro Atlanta area realize that if something major(as in monsoons) doesn't happen pretty damn quickly then we are not going to get anything out of our taps except some gurgling sounds. There was some talk in the paper this weekend of running a pipe up to Chattanooga and tapping the Tennessee River which has about 10 to 15 times the flow of the Chattahoochee but I think the Tennessee folks might have some issues with that. Even if they let us, how long would that take?

Rain at Last

Woke up this morning to lightening and thunder and a damn fine rain. Happy Turkey Day! Got the bird to cook and a few other little stuff but it looks like we are a go for the feed.

What's the Plan

From the AJC this morning.

Lake Lanier on Monday night dropped to its lowest point since the reservoir was constructed in the 1950s.

The lake hit 1,052.64 feet above sea level, about 11 feet below average.

The old record of 1,052.66 was set in December 1981, also during a severe drought. The next year, an El Nino weather pattern pumped monsoon-like rains into the metro region and refilled the lake within six months.

That's unlikely to happen this time. The opposite weather pattern is in effect, La Nina, which typically creates a warmer, drier winter here.

There is a story about metro Atlanta's water crisis in the news everyday. Everyday there are news stories about how to conserve water. What is bothering me is that there is no talk or discussion about what will happen when I turn on my faucet in a few months and nothing comes out. No one, that I know of, has mentioned a plan for the almost guaranteed event that we will have no water in three or four months no matter how much we conserve. Currently the metro area uses about 17.5 millions gallons a day. That is a lot of water and how in the hell are we going to replace it? You can't truck in that much water a day so what are we going to do?

Personally, I have been preparing for a couple of weeks for the emergency. Experts say that in an emergency you can get by on about a gallon of water a day per person for drinking and cooking. That doesn't include water for flushing, bathing and laundry...just survival. I have been buying one gallon jugs of spring water at Publix ($.87/gal) and so far I have a weeks worth for Madam and I. I will continue this practice for a while but the question is how much will be enough and where will I store it? With the current long range forecast saying we will suffer drought conditions for another year or more am I supposed to invest in 800 gallons of water which would be enough for the two of us for a year?

It might seem an overreaction but I am beginning to believe that it soon will be everyone for themselves because I sure don't see the government accepting the reality. Well, Governor Sonny Perdue did pray for rain last week and we got less than a quarter of an inch a day later so there is something being done, I guess. Maybe I should just relax and let our Fairy Sky Father deal with it. There are an awful lot of good Christians here in Georgia as evidenced by our attempts to ban Harry Potter and Beatrix Potter and after all didn't Shrub carry this state with a huge margin. No Worries!