Luanda, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) Angola will have a worsening of the drought episodes in the future, according to a statement issued by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), released today.
It will have a greater frequency and gravity of the drought events that provinces in the south of the country have already suffered since 2012, said the report on the occasion of the World Day of combating desertification and drought, which takes place this Sunday.
The lack of rainfall in the territories of Cunene, Huíla and Namibe has affected 1.2 million people since 2012.
The UN agency recognized the government’s efforts to carry out medium and long-term programs to increase the resilience of the affected communities with a view to breaking the persistent cycle.
A government study of the Post-Disaster Needs 2012-2016 evaluated losses of 750 million dollars.
This research was supported by the United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank.
Meanwhile, the Government is planning actions from 2018 to 2022 in nine sectors, in a plan that must be approved in July by the National Civil Protection Commission.
As part of the fight against desertification, Luanda, in coordination with the UNDP, has been implementing a sustainable charcoal promotion project since October 2016 with the calculation of its respective value chain.
The idea includes reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and is developed in the provinces of Huambo and Cuanza Sur.
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Iran’s leaders say the country is facing its worst drought in 50 years.
That means millions will face water shortages unless something changes.
It’s an annual ritual since Ayatollah Khomeini took control in 1979.
On Iran’s al-Quds – or Jerusalem – Day thousands march shouting ‘Death to Israel’ while burning US and Israeli flags and parading effigies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
It’s just more evidence of Iran’s goal to destroy to the Jewish State.
But in the midst of all that hatred, Netanyahu is offering to help the Iranian people.
Issa Kalantari, a former Iranian agriculture minister, said that 50 million Iranians could be forced out of their homes due to environmental damage; 50 million,” Netanyahu exclaimed.
“Israel recycles nearly 90 percent of its waste water.
“The Iranian regime shouts death to Israel.
In response, Israel shouts life to the Iranian people,” Netanyahu said.

The state-owned Rádio de Cabo Verde quoted Agriculture minister Gilbeto Silva saying the Poilão, the country’s largest dam, had dried up.
The Poilão dam on the Santiago Island, was only two years ago overflowing.
“This is one of the worst droughts in the last 40 years,” Mr Silva said, adding the situation was only comparable to those experienced in 1977 and 1947.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has included Cape Verde among the countries needing foreign food assistance, but Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva, was quoted saying the situation was not about food insecurity.
Cape Verde is a volcanic archipelago off the western coast of Africa.
Nine of the islands are inhabited.
Cape Verde has few natural resources and suffers from scarce rainfall and limited fresh water.
Cape Verde has experienced extensive emigration and it diaspora outnumbers the resident population.
Virtually every Cape Verdean family has emigrant members.
Large-scale emigration started in the 1800s, when Cape Verdeans took part in a great trans-Atlantic migration, motivated by recurrent episodes of drought and famine.

LONDON, June 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – With dusty desert sprawled across the region, Middle Eastern and north African nations must prepare better for drought as water shortages look set to worsen, the United Nations said on Friday.
Over the past 40 years, droughts have become longer and more frequent in the region, where fresh water resources are among the world’s lowest, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
That will likely worsen due to climate change, it added.
“We need to perceive and manage droughts differently, and shift from emergency response to more proactive policy and long-term planning to reduce risks and build greater resilience,” Rene Castro, deputy head at FAO’s climate office, said in a statement.
The report recommended growing crops that need less water, using more water-efficient irrigation systems, or lowering the amount of livestock to prevent over-grazing.
Some villages in southwest Morocco on the edge of the Sahara desert have also been using a fog collection project to turn mist into water to tackle water shortages.
Swelling populations and food demands, combined with even scarcer water and land resources, could lead to a doubling of food prices and trigger civil unrest in some developing countries, the United Nations has said.
Water scarcity already affects more than 40 percent of the world’s population, according to the U.N.’s 2018 World Water Development Report.
(Reporting by Lin Taylor @linnytayls, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers humanitarian issues, conflicts, land and property rights, modern slavery and human trafficking, gender equality, climate change and resilience.
Visit news.trust.org to see more stories)

The National Weather Service says parts of southeast Alaska are experiencing drought conditions following a winter and spring with lackluster snowfall and rain JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Parts of southeast Alaska are experiencing drought conditions following a winter and spring with lackluster snowfall and rain, according to the National Weather Service.
Ketchikan received 11.2 inches (28.5 centimeters) of precipitation in October and 7.6 inches (19.3 centimeters) in November, less than half the normal amounts expected for the rainiest months of the year, the Juneau Empire reported Wednesday.
“This was the most significant drought in the wet season in Southeast Alaska in 40-plus years,” said Aaron Jacobs, a weather service hydrologist.
The area’s conditions during the winter were unusual enough that the weather service had struggled to determine what constitutes a drought in the state, said Rick Thoman, a weather service climate specialist.
“This is something that we haven’t thought of a lot in Alaska, at least on the weather service side,” Thoman said.
“Eleven inches in a month — that’s a year’s worth for Fairbanks, but that is below normal for Ketchikan in the wet season.” Conditions returned closer to normal in late April, but locations in southeast Alaska remain with abnormally dry conditions, according to officials.
Ketchikan had 82 percent of its normal precipitation since October.
Officials are not turning their attention to how the drought could affect fisheries, Jacobs said.
With a smaller snowpack, less water will be flowing for salmon returning to rivers in the summer.
“That could have dire effects on fisheries,” Jacobs said ___ Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com

The drought in Sutherland is drying up farmland boreholes – and draining farmers in the area.
“It takes a lot out of you‚ this drought‚ it really eats at your soul‚” Abra van Wyck‚ president of the farmer’s union in the Karoo town, said.
With no good rainfall in the cold and remote area since 2013‚ Van Wyck said boreholes had slowly dried up‚ making it harder to raise sheep.
Van Wyck said it was estimated that the sheep population had declined from 400 000 to 130 000 since 2013.
Hester Obermeyer‚ a member of a drought committee formed in November, said: “We’ve been dealing with this for so long.
“Every day you get up‚ every day you check the horizon for clouds‚ and you wonder‚ ‘Is this the day the rain is going to come’?” Obermeyer said most people in town could not help but talk about the drought constantly.
This week‚ charitable organisation Gift of the Givers went in with hydrologists to drill more holes for water.
On Monday‚ they drilled a borehole that produced potable water.
“When the first drill started and the water was found‚ the tears were flowing‚” Obermeyer said.
“Grown men were crying – it was such an uplifting experience.”

It is only mid-June, but already drought conditions have hit McLennan County, where rainfall totals stand 8 inches below average.
McLennan County received 20.4 inches of rain through June 14 last year, a foot more than the 8.4 inches recorded in the same period this year, according to the weather service.
Corn farmers will be doing well to produce a quarter of the corn per acre they were able to produce last year, said Jimmy Westerfeld, who has been a farmer in Central Texas for 44 years.
And if not for crop insurance, there could be a lot of broke farmers.” Last year, almost ideal conditions produced corn yields ranging from 120 to 130 bushels per acre, he said.
Much of the state is suffering from hot and dry conditions extreme even for Texas.
This dry south wind is drying everything up.
Not really going to affect price because Midwest produces more of the corn, and they are having a decent year.
Cotton and grain sorghum are also suffering.
“This will put farmers in the middle, though the issue really has nothing to do with agricultural products.
That often is where the penalty is paid.” Sanderson Farms Chief Financial Officer Mike Cockrell said weather conditions in Texas could affect what the Mississippi-based poultry giant pays for feed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday designated drought-stricken El Paso County a primary natural disaster area, making agricultural producers eligible for emergency loans.
The agricultural producers "who suffered losses and damages caused by a recent drought" can apply for the Farm Service Agency’s emergency loans until Feb. 4.
Much of El Paso County is in severe drought, according to a U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday.
A northwest portion of the county is in moderate drought.
At this time last year, about 94 percent of the state had received adequate moisture, the report says.
Now, 79.67 percent of the state is abnormally dry, 67.52 percent is in moderate drought, 51.18 percent is in severe drought, 35.21 percent is in extreme drought and 7.79 percent was in exceptional drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor’s highest designation.
Producers in contiguous counties – Crowley, Douglas, Elbert, Fremont, Lincoln, Pueblo and Teller – also are eligible to apply.
"FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available and repayment ability," a USDA news release says.
"FSA has a variety of programs, in addition to the emergency loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from the impacts of this disaster."
– Contact Ellie Mulder: 636-0198 Twitter: @lemarie

While the drought still isn’t gone in Northwest Oklahoma, the severity of it has been downgraded in some areas.
The western portion of Garfield County has been downgraded from extreme drought, the second-worst category, to severe drought, the third-worst, according to the June 14 U.S. Drought Monitor report of Oklahoma.
In Kingfisher County, the majority of the area also is in severe drought, while a small eastern sliver is in moderate conditions.
Grant County is mostly in severe drought, while the majority of both Alfalfa and Woods counties are in moderate drought, with small portions in severe drought and extreme drought.
With this year’s wheat harvest, many areas were severely impacted by the drought.
Lower yields or complete abandonment took place in some areas on the Kingfisher-Blaine County lines due to the drought conditions, according to a recent Oklahoma Wheat Commission report.
Breckinridge’s Mesonet weather-recording station has recorded 12.08 inches of rain so far this year, and 9.06 inches has been recorded in the last two months, with 5.9 inches of that in the past month.
Woodward’s station has seen a touch more rain though, with 5.03 inches this year, 4.49 of it in the last 60 days and 2.7 inches in the past month.
The station at Kenton in Cimarron County has seen the least rain this year with just 1.93 inches so far, and .95 of that in the past month.
That station saw 47.37 inches of precipitation last year.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) — “Earthquake weather” is often dismissed as not a real phenomenon, but a new study suggests a combination of drought and heat may have caused an earthquake that hit the Napa Valley in 2014.
When the magnitude-6.0 earthquake hit the Napa and Sonoma Valleys in the summer of 2014, it killed one person, injured several hundred and caused more than $500 million in losses.
The study recently published in the American Geophysical Union’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth suggests land between the valleys is stretched each summer as groundwater levels fall beneath the valleys and the ground in the valleys sinks and contracts.
The amount of the horizontal stretching measured is tiny — about 3 millimeters (0.12 inch) — but enough to stress faults, according to the researchers.
“We think it’s more of a localized effect, something related to the groundwater system.
We don’t know if it is groundwater pumping specifically, or something related to how the natural aquifer system works, or a combination,” said lead author Meredith Kraner, formerly of the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University in New York and now with the University of Nevada, Reno.
Amid the drought, water agencies put further stress on the land as they pumped more groundwater, putting extra stress on the West Napa fault system, possibly triggering an earthquake.
According to the USGS, there is no such thing as earthquake weather because, statistically, there an equal distribution of earthquakes in all weather.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.)