Travels to Africa, Part 2--Drought

After more than 24 hours of air travel, I got home last night and indulged myself in something that was unthinkable in Africa: I lingered in the shower for longer than was necessary, luxuriating in the warm water flooding over my skin. In the 3 African countries we visited--Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, there are signs everywhere urging the conservation of water. "Every drop counts!' proclaim the signs, and in one public toilet the sinks put out only a miserly mist of water when I turned on the faucet. No stream of water at all.

The reason for this intensive conservation effort is that Africa is suffering from a prolonged drought. In the Chobe area of Botswana where we saw so many magnificent animals, the vegetation is mostly gone except right along the Chobe River. The elephants, who need an enormous amount of food and work at feeding themselves for about 18 hours a day, are peeling the bark off the trees to get at the nourishing layer underneath. 

 In the southern region of Madagascar, it is so dry that the people are subsisting on cassava leaves because they can no longer grow rice or other crops. More than 1 million are food insecure. In Northern Kenya, drought since 2016 threatens to leave another 4 million people food insecure.

Let's get real: The term food insecure is a sanitized way of saying that these people are in danger of starving.

Capetown, South Africa, is a favorite destination for tourists like us drawn by its great food and spectacular mountains, and also by the thousands of plants found only in that region. The Kirstenbosch botanical garden shows off this amazing variety of ericas, proteas, birds of paradise and so much more it was dazzling to see. Meanwhile, Capetown nearly ran out of water completely last year. It was so bad that hotel managers put buckets in the showers for people to catch water and then use it to flush the toilet.  Things had eased a bit this year, and we saw no buckets.

In Zimbabwe, out of a population of 16 million, one-third, or more than 5 million people need food assistance because of drought and other problems. And, of course, the famous Victoria Falls are diminished by drought, as I wrote in the first part of this African blog.

Why the droughts? A combination of effects of El Nino, increased irrigation, and--climate change. 

It is so infuriating that Trump, McConnell and the other Republican climate-change deniers continue to behave as if nothing is wrong, and nothing needs to be done. Drought is one of the big contributors to the mass migrations that are taking place.