Crisis in Somaliland: drought and famine threaten millions.
In Somalia over six million need humanitarian assistance, around 680,000 people have fled the drought there since last November and around 1.4 million children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition this year.
This is the fourth rainy season when there has been little or no rain in Somaliland, which was one of the first areas hit by drought three years ago.
I’ve never seen a drought like this.
I had 200 goats and now I have 20 left.” Qoran is among the residents selected by the NGO Concern Worldwide to receive a cash transfer she can use in the local shop.
Nearly 23,000 received support in the form of cash and EU Humanitarian Aid has given money to help nearly 14,000 people.
Euronews reporter Monica Pinna spoke to Heather Blackwell of EU Humanitarian Aid and asked her: “Just six years ago Somalia suffered a famine that cost the lives of over a quarter of a million people.
Mercy Gitau of Concern Worldwide in Somalia told us about the Baldheere storage facility: “This tank contains 270,000 litres of water.
Before the tank was built, getting water required huge effort.
When there were tensions between the two countries the border was closed and we had to go 15 kilometres.

More than 24 percent of the state state, in a swath stretching across the mid-section of Connecticut and including most of Hartford County, is still listed as "abnormally dry by federal experts.
Last week, U.S. Drought Monitor scientists considered almost one-quarter of Connecticut to still be suffering from "moderate drought" conditions.
"A cool and wet week allowed for improvements to the remaining areas of drought and dryness in the region," the climate experts reported Thursday.
"There are still some indicators of long-term dryness in the region, but the most recent wet pattern has eliminated all drought concerns for the time being."
A working group of Connecticut state agencies last week lifted the drought watch that it has issued in October 2016 when the lack of rainfall was causing serious concerns about low levels in drinking water reservoirs.
Numerous communities and water companies around the state issued voluntary – and some mandatory – water use restrictions.
The only exception is the New London Water Department, which listed its reservoir at 89 percent of normal.
Similar drought advisories were issued by the state in 2002, 2007 and 2010.
NWS monitors at Bradley International Airport showed precipitation there was more than 13 inches below normal for all of 2016.
The drought had all sorts of major impacts on agricultural crops in this state.

Somalia leader wants arms embargo lifted to fight al-Shabab.
LONDON (AP) — Somalia’s president on Thursday called for an end to the arms embargo on his long-chaotic country, saying that if the military doesn’t have more sophisticated equipment in the fight against the al-Shabab extremist group, "definitely this war will continue for another 10 years."
He spoke to reporters at the end of a high-level conference to address the Horn of Africa nation’s deepening humanitarian and security crisis.
Mohamed, who was elected in February and holds U.S. citizenship, suggested that the international community develop a road map to achieve lifting the arms embargo within several months or "maybe next year."
British Prime Minster Theresa May and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for more support to counter Somalia’s deadly drought, with the U.N. chief requesting another $900 million in aid this year.
"Somalia now hangs in the balance between peril and potential," Guterres said.
"Here in London we can tip the scales from danger to safety."
Some 439,000 people are at risk of famine and more than 6 million people, or half the country’s population, are "severely food insecure," Guterres said.
Somalia is also facing new military interest from the United States, as President Donald Trump has approved expanded operations, including airstrikes, against al-Shabab.
Pressure is growing on Somalia’s military to assume full responsibility for the country’s security as the 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, that has been supporting the fragile central government plans to leave by the end of 2020.

UK Hosepipe ban 2017: Britain driest for SIX YEARS as drought fears sweep country.
Parched fields and woodlands have become tinder boxes for fires sparking warnings for walkers and ramblers to be vigilant.
Weeks of no rain have left soil bone dry while river and groundwater levels across the country continue to fall.
Groundwater levels in parts of the UK have now sunk to levels not seen for six years, according to the Soil Association.
“Soils in parts of the UK are currently at the moisture status we would normally see in summer.” Thu, November 10, 2016 Not all British weather brings chaos.
Take a look at these breathtaking images of early morning sunrises, sunsets and stunning beauty across the UK.
The Met Office said the mercury is likely to top 25C (77F) by the middle of next week as warm air sweeps in from the Continent.
Parts of the country will see showers although not the persistent rainfall needed to replenish depleted water stocks.
Met Office forecaster Oli Claydon said: “There is the potential to see 25C (77F) in the south next week dependent on cloud cover and how much sun we get.
“Further north we expect to see highs of around 16C (60.8F), it will feel much milder in some parts of the UK because of the contrast from the dry, cooler conditions over the past couple of weeks.

The South Florida Water Management District, which supplies water from Orlando to the Keys, is awaiting the arrival of the rainy season to refill depleted reservoirs and lakes.
“We know a wet season is coming,” said Eric Swartz, a meteorologist for the water district.
The wet season typically starts in late May.
The water management district, which includes South Florida and other parts of the state, has experienced eight consecutive months of below average rainfall, with only 57 percent of the normal total for the dry season.
Afternoon thunderstorms have traditionally fired up starting about May 21, and officials are hoping for an early start to the wet season this year, Swartz said.
It’s impossible to predict exactly when the wet season will start, how long it will last and how much rain it will bring, he said.
Historically, Florida gets about two to four feet of rain during the wet season, which typically lasts through early November.
It doesn’t appear the rainy season will start in the next seven days, Swartz said.
While coastal South Florida saw average rainfall in April, other parts of the state remained dry, said John Mitnik, chief engineer for the water management district.
About 66 percent of the state is experiencing drought conditions, the highest percentage of any state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

UN chief calls for international support to alleviate drought crisis in Somalia.
“Somalia now hangs in the balance between peril and potential,” Mr. Guterres said.
“Here in London we can tip the scales from danger to safety.” He said political stability has improved but the gains are fragile in part because “growing food insecurity” is affecting millions of Somalis.
Guterres said some 439,000 people are at risk of famine and more than 6 million are “severely food insecure.” Somalia is also facing new military interest from the United States, as President Trump has approved expanded operations, including airstrikes, against the extremist group al-Shabab.
Aid agencies have expressed concern that the military moves could endanger the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the drought.
Pressure is growing on Somalia’s military to assume full responsibility for the country’s security as the 22,000-strong African Union multinational force, AMISOM, that has been supporting the fragile central government plans to leave by the end of 2020.
The US military has acknowledged the problem.
The AU force will begin withdrawing in 2018, and the head of the US Africa Command, Commander General Thomas Waldhauser, has said that if it leaves before Somalia’s security forces are capable, “large portions of Somalia are at risk of returning to al-Shabab control or potentially allowing ISIS to gain a stronger foothold.” Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who was elected in February and also holds US citizenship, has repeatedly vowed to defeat al-Shabab within two years.
Somalia also confronts the worst outbreak of cholera in five years, with almost 690 deaths so far this year and cases expected to reach 50,000 by the end of June, the World Health Organization said in a statement Thursday.
WHO added that if the current drought situation continues, “famine could soon be a reality.” Charities working to stave off famine in Somalia are urging that the African country’s debts be cancelled.

Drought damage not over.
That was the message University of Tennessee forestry professor Wayne Clatterbuck delivered at the spring meeting of the Upper Cumberland Forestry Association group in Cookeville Tuesday.
Clatterbuck, an expert in both upland and bottomland forest landscapes, said it will take several years for the damage to trees to fully show itself.
Why the delay?
“The tree doesn’t die right then.
Clatterbuck noted people can already see signs of ridge decline, typically areas of red oaks in higher, drier areas.
White oak species typically live longer — a couple hundred years, compared to area red oaks’ approximate 80-year lifespan, Clatterbuck said.
Despite the damage, Clatterbuck said Tennessee forests fared the best among the 14 Southeastern states in withstanding the drought.
“Lots of species, lots of water,” Clatterbuck said.
Clatterbuck also talked about the Smoky Mountains fire that struck Pigeon Forge, and even more tragically, Gatlinburg.

In science news this week: Droughts and floods: California’s climate change conundrum; Sharks are dying by the hundreds in San Francisco Bay; IEP posts new edition of their Newsletter; Collaborative research project points the way to improving salmon recovery efforts on the Columbia River; Not just a game: Steelhead, science, and a race for survival; Cool new nesting boxes help save seabird colony; Mergansers: The plunging ducks; Spike in Southwest dust storms driven by ocean changes; What will El Nino look like in the future?
But for the first time since an unusual shark stranding was first reported in the East Bay a half-century ago, scientists say they’re close to an explanation.
… ” Read more from the Northwest Fisheries Center here: The Call of the Wild Fish Template: A collaborative research project points the way to improving salmon recovery efforts on the Columbia River Not just a game: Steelhead, science, and a race for survival: “If you ever wanted to follow a steelhead from the stream it was born in to the open ocean, now you have your chance.
And for a game with real fish to play out, scientists have to catch steelhead.
The smolts, as scientists call them, are trying to make it to the ocean.
… ” Read more from FishBio here: Mergansers: The plunging ducks Spike in Southwest dust storms driven by ocean changes: “People living in the American Southwest have experienced a dramatic increase in windblown dust storms in the last two decades, likely driven by large-scale changes in sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean drying the region’s soil, according to new NOAA-led research.
For answers, scientists look to the past: “Scientists are trying to predict the future behavior of El Niño — the formation of warmer-than-usual ocean waters in the equatorial Pacific — by looking back in time.
Detailed factsheets in the Urban Water Atlas for Europe present the state of water management in more than 40 European cities and regions, together with a number of overseas examples.
… ” Read more from Science Daily here: Urban Water Atlas for Europe: 360 degree view on water management in cities Maven’s XKCD Comic Pick of the Week … Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!
About Science News and Reports: This weekly feature, posted every Thursday, is a collection of the latest scientific research and reports with a focus on relevant issues to the Delta and to California water, although other issues such as climate change are sometimes included.

“150 years of human intervention in and around the Delta has significantly changed the Delta; changes such as reclamation of land, where approximately 1100 miles of levee construction developed over 400,000 acres of farmland and increased Delta residents to approximately 500,000 in population, has reshaped what the Delta is now.
The Delta Plan is a comprehensive management plan for the Delta; it is not a project plan.
“Benefits related to reduced fish entrainment losses, operational flexibility related to limiting reverse flow conditions and fish entrainment, to create more variable flow patterns, support Delta water quality management, address climate change and future uncertainty, and adaptively manage the system to achieve the coequal goals.
But we did make some organizational changes to be able to better tie the problems that we’re trying to address to solutions and opportunities that we’re presenting in the amendment.” “Councilmembers suggested that the draft amendment should improve its description on how the options were evaluated and selected for promotion, so we’ve made revisions to the problem statement to tie them more directly to those characteristics that we’ve presented in the recommendations for new conveyance, storage, and operations, and we heard that we should be relying more on the substantial time and effort and work that has been done over the last two decades in particular, on the development analysis for options for conveyance, storage, and operations, so you’ll see a lot more references in the upfront sections of the amendment to that historical background and work that’s already been performed by others.” They received a number of suggestions related to specific text and language that’s included in the draft that we revised, as well as suggestions for a lot of new recommendations, she said.
So in response to these comments, we have expanded the introduction and problem statements, we’ve made a lot of changes to the recommendations and added a number of new recommendations for your consideration today.” The Council and staff then spent about the next two hours going line by line through the draft amendment language, discussing many issues, including science the science behind the amendment and construction and other impacts to the community.
… Stockton is being set up to take all of the risk with all the Delta tunnels project which has only been 10% designed.” BARBARA BARRIGAN-PARILLA, RESTORE THE DELTA: “Last month, hundreds of informed Delta residents made comments to this Council expressing their robust opposition to the proposed Delta Plan amendment for conveyance and storage that would make Cal Water Fix tunnels the preferred conveyance alternative.
I have lived in the Delta for 20 years and in Discovery Bay for 11 of those years.
How is taking a habitat conservation plan out of this system and dual conveyance making things better?” “I’m confused that the Delta Stewardship Council doesn’t seem to be concerned about the Delta, and everything associated with it.
You say conveyance doesn’t mean the Delta tunnels or the Water Fix, but it’s the only thing out there that anyone is looking at, so to me, I think that you’re really saying the Delta tunnels.” “The opening remarks from the Brentwood meeting said, ‘the current system of exporting water is clearly not working, and that the Water Fix is needed to fix it.’ That was the statement.
However, the proposed changes to this water conveyance storage and operations amendment appear to endorse approval of the only major water conveyance project being discussed today, California Water Fix.

Drought could cause landslides, experts warn as cliffs on verge of collapse.
The threat to the nation’s cliff tops also extends to large parts of the east coast in Yorkshire and East Anglia.
"Movement on the coastline in this area is not unusual but the amount that fell on Tuesday evening is significant in its size – 20m long.
and tonnes of debris," she said.
It comes as the UK experienced the driest winter for 20 years and there are fears the UK could be in for a summer drought as the wettest inhabited place in England, Seathwaite, Cumbria, remains “bone dry”.
Experts have told the Telegraph that more slips could happen across the UK.
"After periods of really dry weather you get cracks forming in the cliffs and then if heavy rain comes it suddenly increases the weight at the top and you get landslides.
In 2015 a large section of the East Yorkshire coastline began collapsing after a large crack appeared in the cliffs at Mappleton beach East Riding Council has issued a warning for people using the beaches to be aware that coastal erosion can happen at any time.
"Whilst extended periods of dry or wet weather may contribute to incidents, the main driver for coastal erosion in the East Riding is wave action which is further exacerbated by storm conditions. "
In 2012 a tourist was crushed by a rock fall at Burton Bradstock, near West Bay, in Dorset, close to where the hit TV series Broadchurch is filmed.