LONDON, NNC – The United Nations (UN) through the Agriculture and Food Organization (FAO) reported that countries in North Africa and the Middle East should better prepare for drought disasters as water shortages are projected to worsen.
Over the last 40 years, droughts have lasted longer and are relatively frequent in the region, where clean water sources are among the lowest in the world.
"It looks like things will get worse due to climate change," said Rene Castro, deputy head of the FAO climate office, in a statement, Friday (6/15/2010).
"We need to look at and manage drought differently, and move from emergency response to proactive and long-term planning policies to reduce risks and build greater resilience," he said.
The report recommends planting plants that need little water, using more efficient irrigation systems of water, or lowering the number of livestock to prevent much grass consumption.
A number of villages in the southwestern part of Morocco near the Sahara desert have also used a water vapor collection project to process vapor into water to overcome water shortage.
Population and food demands, coupled with increasingly scarce water and land resources, could lead to food prices doubling and triggering civil unrest in some developing countries.
According to a UN World Water Development report in 2018 released by the United Nations, water scarcity has affected more than 40 percent of the world’s population.
"That number could rise as a result of global warming, with one in four people projected to face chronic shortages or shortcomings by 2050," he explained.

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.
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by Jared Ferrie | @jaredferrie | Thomson Reuters Foundation Tuesday, 29 May 2018 13:57 GMT May 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Millions of Afghans face hunger after a drought decimated crops in the war-ravaged country, U.N. officials said on Tuesday, calling for an extra $115 million to help families buy food.
Some rivers and water points have totally dried up, and the last wheat harvest has been "completely lost", according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Six months down the road, millions of people could be in a situation of untenable hunger without knowing where their next meal will come from," said Toby Lanzer, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan.
Already, the drought has forced 21,000 people to leave their homes and settle on the outskirts of the western city of Herat, said OCHA.
"People prefer cash, which allows them to buy what they need most," he said.
The U.N. is revising its humanitarian appeal for 2018 because of the drought, and says it needs an extra $115 million to help 1.4 million of the hardest-hit people.
The drought has also hurt nomadic herders known as Kuchis, as pasturelands have dried up in some areas, including the northeastern provinces of Badakhshan and Kunduz.
Prices for sheep have fallen by as much as 40 percent, but many Kuchis are selling them out of desperation, according to OCHA’s report.
"In Helmand, village elders reportedly need to obtain special approval from the armed groups controlling their districts to access markets in areas under government control," said the bulletin.
The cost of wheat shot up by 50 percent and produce prices quadrupled in Kandahar City when roads were temporarily closed in April due to fighting, it said.

Driven largely by climate disasters and conflict, levels of acute hunger surged in 2017, leaving some 124 million people across 51 countries facing hunger crises –11 million more than the previous year, according to a new United Nations report.
“Reports such as this give us the vital data and analysis to better understand the challenge.
It is now up to us to take action to meet the needs of those facing the daily scourge of hunger and to tackle its root causes,” said Secretary-General António Guterres in a video message on the report.
The increase is largely attributable to new or intensified conflict and insecurity in Myanmar, north-east Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Yemen.
“The fighting must stop now and the world must come together to avert these crises often happening right in front of our eyes,” underscored David Beasley, WFP Executive Director.
Mr. da Silva stated: “Investing in food security and livelihood in conflict situations saves lives, strengthens resilience and can also contribute to sustaining peace.” We must acknowledge and address the link between hunger and conflict if we are to achieve zero hunger — José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General The report finds that food crises are increasingly determined by other complex causes as well, such as extreme climatic shocks and high prices of staple food – often acting at the same time.
For instance, prolonged drought conditions resulted in consecutive poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in eastern and southern Africa.
The report also flags that entire communities and more children and women are in need of nutritional support compared to last year, indicating the need for long-lasting solutions to revert the trend.
The report, which brings together regional and national data and analysis from multiple sources, demonstrates that in addition to critically needed humanitarian aid, development action needs to engage much earlier so as to tackle the root causes of extreme vulnerability, therefore, building resilience.
“This Global Report on Food Crises shows the magnitude of today’s crises but also shows us that if we bring together political will and today’s technology, we can have a world that’s more peaceful, more stable and where hunger becomes a thing of the past,” Mr. Beasley concluded.

This is only slightly better than the annual per capita renewable freshwater availability of 800 cubic metres in South Africa and way below the 2,000 cubic metres in China.
Renewable internal freshwater resources refer to internal river flows and groundwater from rainfall in the country, and exclude inflows from upstream countries (groundwater and surface water).
For instance, Punjab has the highest share of rice procurement in the country despite not being the most efficient state in producing rice in terms of water usage.
Thus, India tends to use more water than other major agricultural countries for growing crops.
In the most water-stressed states of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, annual groundwater consumption is more than annual groundwater recharge.
While India is blessed with major rivers, there is a sharp regional skew in the availability of surface water.
The sharing of river water has become a political battleground in the south, as seen in the battle over Cauvery waters between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
About 60% of India’s districts face the problem of groundwater contamination or scarcity or both.
Despite progress, India still lags its peers in reducing deaths from water-borne diseases like diarrhoea.
Unless steps are taken to reverse the depletion and contamination of India’s water resources, India’s cities and villages may face a fate worse than Cape Town in the coming years.

UN Projects Tackle Desertification in the Mid-East, Asia and Africa.
June 2017: The China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) have launched land restoration initiatives that may also help countries progress towards sustainable energy, agriculture and water management.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) is supporting the conversion of desert to cultivable land in Egypt, while the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund launched a project on Juncao Technology that could be tailored to countries’ needs across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The agency also notes that agriculture in the region uses “around 85% of the total available freshwater,” with more than 60% of water resources flowing from outside national and regional boundaries.
Graziano da Silva called looming water scarcity in the MENA region is a “huge challenge requiring an urgent and massive response.” To disseminate agricultural technologies, reduce hunger, enhance sustainable energy and address soil erosion in African and Asian countries, the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund launched the Juncao Technology project in May 2017.
According to remarks by China’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Liu Jieyi, Juncao, the technology is an agricultural approach that replaces wood with grass and can be used to grow edible and medicinal fungi, feed livestock, produce clean energy and prevent erosion.
In the dry Ningxia region of northwestern China, it is estimated that Juncao technologies helped to raise farmers’ annual income from US$80 in 1998 to US$1,024 in 2007.
According to Chinese news sources, China will contribute $200 million to the UN over 10 years to the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund to support peace and security and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Fund was launched in May 2017.
[Website of the FAO Near East and North Africa Water Scarcity Initiative] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on WDCD 2017] [Xinhua Story on Launch of the Juncao Technology Project] [Remarks by Liu Jieyi] [State Council of People’s Republic of China Press Release]

Combating soil pollution vital for addressing climate change.
Soil pollution refers to the presence of chemicals in soils that are either out of place or at higher-than-normal concentrations Excessive amount of nitrogen and trace metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury can impair plant metabolism and reduce crop productivity Around one-third of the world’s soils are degraded, due to unsustainable soil management practices Agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides and even antibiotics contained in animal manure are major potential pollutants Excess human activities leading to soil pollution took centre stage at the fifth Global Soil Partnership Plenary Assembly held at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome.
When they enter the food chain, these pollutants pose risk to food security, water resources, rural livelihoods and human health.
Combating soil degradation Around one-third of the world’s soils are degraded due to unsustainable soil management practices.
Tens of billions of tonnes of soil are lost to farming each year, which in some countries affects as much as one-fifth of all croplands.
Land degradation is also a major problem in India.
In nine states, around 40 to 70 per cent of land has undergone desertification.
Of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) and 169 targets, four contain targets related to soils and sustainable soil management.
Such contamination may be produced by mining and industrial activity or by sewer and waste mismanagement.
In some cases, pollutants are spread over large areas by wind and rain.

Drought, floods slash Sri Lanka’s rice production, threaten food security – U.N.. ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A severe drought followed by floods has slashed agricultural production in Sri Lanka, leaving some 900,000 people facing food insecurity, the United Nations said, warning that without help the situation might further deteriorate.
Production of rice, the country’s staple food, is forecast to drop almost 40 percent to 2.7 million tonnes in 2017, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report on Thursday.
Other crops including pulses, chillies and onion are also expected to take a blow, it said.
In May, the situation was exacerbated by the worst torrential rains in 14 years, which triggered floods and landslides in the country’s southwest, killing some 200 people and forcing many from their homes.
"The level of water in irrigation reservoirs is still well below the average," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
Unable to grow their own crops, many families have to buy food at local markets where prices have spiked due to the crisis, it said.
FAO and WFP said seeds, equipment, irrigation support, and cash assistance are urgently needed to help farmers in the next planting season starting in September, and to prevent conditions from deteriorating.
"If (the planting season) fails the situation will worsen a lot for the families affected," Coslet said.
(Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Alisa Tang.
Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience.

Nearly 1,000 feet below the bed of the Dead Sea, scientists have found evidence that during past warm periods, the Mideast has suffered drought on scales never recorded by humans — a possible warning for current times.
Thick layers of crystalline salt show that rainfall plummeted to as little as a fifth of modern levels some 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago.
Today, the region is drying again as climate warms, and scientists say it will get worse.
"All the observations show this region is one of those most affected by modern climate change, and it’s predicted to get dryer.
The landlocked Dead Sea, straddling Israel, Jordan and Palestinian lands, is earth’s lowest spot on land.
In recent years, its level has dropped about four feet a year.
In 2010, scientists from a half-dozen nations drilled 1,500 feet into the deepest part of the seabed, bringing up a cross section of deposits recording 200,000 years of regional climate history — the longest such archive in the Mideast.
About halfway down they found salty layers some 300 feet thick, indicating a long-term drop below the sea’s current level.
In the most extreme periods, it went down 80 percent, and this lasted for decades to centuries at a time.
"Our study shows that in the past, without any human intervention, the fresh water nearly stopped flowing.

“Saving livelihoods means saving lives – this is what building resilience is all about,” he added, noting that for years, the focus has been responding to droughts when they happen, rushing to provide emergency assistance and to keep people alive.
While these emergency responses are important, investing in preparedness and resilience puts countries on a footing to act quickly before it is too late, meaning that farmers and rural communities are better positioned to cope with extreme weather when it does hit.
The need for a global drought re-boot is pressing.
The many impacts of drought drive not only hunger and instability but cause economic losses up to $8 billion each annually.
As the planet’s climate changes, severe dry-spells are becoming more and more frequent.
Since the 1970s, the land area in the world affected by situations of drought has doubled.
Over 80 percent of damage and losses caused by drought are born by agriculture in the developing world, FAO studies have shown.
Between 2005 and 2016, 84 droughts affected 34 different African nations.
“WMO provides guidance and scientific information to strengthen national services responsible for addressing drought risks to agriculture,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas.
“This means investing in smallholder farmers to help them address productivity challenges, give them access to markets and finance and most importantly encourage climate-smart agriculture so that when the drought inevitably comes, they have the tools they need to survive and thrive,” said Mr. Houngbo.