Severe drought hits Uganda

2008-04-03 13:08

Lokupoi, Uganda - John Lochaon does not just survive on less than $1 a day. He has stretched out $15 for nine months in a part of Uganda that climate change is plunging into famine.

Lochaon had been unable to make a living because he lived in Karamoja, one of the driest and least developed areas in this east African country and one with a lack of infrastructure and basic services.

Drought forced the one million-plus people in this northeastern region bordering Kenya and Sudan to constantly move around searching for food.

"I have two problems: old age and hunger," said the elderly Lochaon, who does not know his age. He sat on a log outside of his thatched-roof hut, his long, shrivelled limbs stretched over the dusty ground as lizards scurried by.

"Climate change is having a strong impact here - Karamoja is now in an emergency," said Alix Loriston, deputy director of the UN World Food Programme.

Consequence of global warming

The semi-arid region had typically experienced drought since the 1960s, every five to 10 years.

Uganda's floods last autum left 400 000 homeless. Climate experts said they were also a consequence of global warming, and washed away what little crops existed.

In Karamoja's St Kizito Hospital, said it treated more than 350 children a day for severe malnutrition.

Harvesting was usually done once a year, during the wet season, said James Lemukol, a hospital doctor. "For the rest of the year, there is a dry spell of time."

Karamojong Ellen Moru said she was waiting for rain. "It is two years since we had a harvest," she said. "If the rains come this year maybe we will have one; if not, this situation will worsen."

Moru, who had four children, said she had to hunt for wild fruits and vegetables. Behind her, tall, lanky Karamojong, bedecked in kaleidoscopic fabric and carrying walking sticks, roamed past scruffy bushes in the homestead.

Local leaders said the people relied on local alcohol, water, wild fruits and even ants and rats for sustenance.

Cattle and food are lacking

To compound problems, as climate change dried the land, residents fight over ever-scarcer resources.

Cattle were the most prized possession of the Karamojong, prompting them to steal and even die in gunfights for the animals.

For now, however, both cattle and food were lacking in Karamoja.

WFP said it would distribute enough food to meet the needs of 300 000 people, but that it lacked enough funds to feed the rest.

"The rains have been unpredictable and unreliable. You cultivate crops then they fail to germinate," said Anna Sagal, as she stood in the heat waiting for a food handout.

Scientists on the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned last September that the effects of global warming were already being felt in Africa.

Africans were expected to face a severe lack of food and drinkable water by the end of the century.

- AFP