Drought in Africa: An Analysis of Causes and Mitigation Strategies

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the drought situation in East and Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the causes, impacts, and mitigation strategies. It reviews literature on the relationship between environmental factors and conflict, the impact of El Niño, and the effect on maize production. The essay also examines international community efforts, such as the Kyoto Protocol, and recommends careful water usage and drought-resistant crops. It concludes by emphasizing the urgent need to control drought conditions to prevent hunger and starvation, impacting both the environment and human society. Desklib offers similar resources for students.

Running head: DROUGHT IN AFRICA
Drought in Africa
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
Pastoralists in Eastern Africa especially the Horn of Africa have been following the
changes in the seasons and the movements of their animals traditionally, for cultivation.
However, the effects of severe drought-like conditions here have compelled many people
residing here to move, with their hardly being any water for them and their animals to drink, let
alone to bathe (McNally et al., 2016). This essay will analyze the situation of drought in East and
Sub Saharan Africa in detail, it will provide an overview of the efforts being made by the
international and regional authorities and local communities to bring the situation under control
and will conclude with recommendations for the same (Vrieling et al., 2016).
Literature Review
The situation of drought in Africa is quite threatening to the survival of people in the
surrounding areas as water is the most important pre-requisite for the human race. In the article
entitled “Examining the relationship between environmental factors and conflict in pastoralist
areas of East Africa” as written by Ayana et al. (2016), the region of East Africa is known for the
frequent occurrences of drought. Such recurrent occurrences of drought has led to the rise of
tension in the pastoral community of East Africa. People in this region depends upon water
sources in order to carry out their daily activities. According to the author such shortages of
water has led to the outbreak of conflicts in the region. Thus the main purpose of the article is to
prove that any adverse changes in the environment has a predictive indication of any conflictual
situation.
The condition of droughts in the sub-Saharan region of Africa has been aggravated by the
effect of El-Nino on the area. The article “Impact of climate change and El Niño episodes on

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droughts in sub-Saharan Africa” written by Gizaw and Gan (2017), looks in to the correlation
between the impact of drought on the humanitarian crisis. In this article, the Palmer Drought
Severity Index has been used in order to determine the changing pattern of drought occurrences
during the time period of 1971 to 2000 in order to make predictions for the future. According to
the authors of the article, several areas of South Africa and West Africa are expected to become
much drier in the future while the areas of East Africa are expected to become wetter.
The article titled “Drought tolerant maize for farmer adaptation to drought in sub-Saharan
Africa: Determinants of adoption in eastern and southern Africa” written by Fisher et al. (2015),
talks about the impact of climate change on the production of maize. The areas where maize is
frown in Africa accounts for around four percent of the land mass. The severe occurrence of
drought has a negative impact on this production of maize by decreasing the production by
nearly twenty five to thirty percent. According to the authors, in order to improve the security of
food for the basic subsistence of the people, a project has been launched by the name of the
Drought Maize for Africa. The aim of this project is to create around one hundred and sixty
maize varieties which are drought tolerant.
Findings and Analysis
The severe threat of droughts in the continent of Africa, especially in the regions of East
Africa and the sub-Saharan areas, have posed a great challenge to the entire international
community. The effects of climate change has been faced by the world for a long time but its
manifestation on the surface of the earth has been slow. Towards the end of the twentieth
century, the manifestations of climate change became more apparent in the form of increase in
the level of sea water, melting of polar ice caps and the frequent changes in the climatic
conditions of the world (Franchini & Mannucci, 2015). Africa is a continent surrounded by water

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bodies on three sides. The tropical location of the continent ensured an abundant growth of forest
reserves and the higher productivity level of majority of the crops. However, due to changes in
the climatic condition, the continent of Africa has been severely impacted. The occurrences of
drought is a frequent condition in the regions of East Africa and in the sub-Saharan areas.
Moreover, the productivity level of the crops in and around these regions has fallen down to a
considerable extent.
Recommendations
Attempts have been made by the international community to tackle the problems of
climate change and to slow down its progress if not eliminate it completely. The conference on
Kyoto Protocol of 1992 signified a great leap on the part of the nation-states of the world to
reduce the generation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is a major agent of climate
change.
Besides this, several recommendation has been made to prevent the occurrences of
drought in Africa. First is the recommendation of the careful usage of water. Freshwater is a
scare resource on Earth and there is a need to use it sparingly and only for essential activities.
Secondly, attempts should be made to grow those crops which require less water and
nutrients and can be easily grown in the desert areas. The main aim is the survival of the human
race and this is possible when they have the basic means of subsistence (Franchini & Mannucci,
2015).
Conclusion
In conclusion it is observed that there is an immediate need to control the spread of
drought-like conditions in the areas of Africa. Across Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as

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the free area that is designated as Somaliland the drought, has become quite acute. As many as
10.7 million people are faced with the possibility of hunger, and death due to starvation. With the
rainfall being deficient in all of these places, especially in the months of March and April, when
it is otherwise known to shower in plenty, concerns are rising as to for how much longer it is that
the drought-like conditions will continue. It does not only have an adverse impact on the
environment, but also on the human society and poses a challenging threat to its survival.

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References:
AghaKouchak, A. (2015). A multivariate approach for persistence-based drought prediction:
Application to the 2010–2011 East Africa drought. Journal of Hydrology, 526, 127-135
Agutu, N. O., Awange, J. L., Zerihun, A., Ndehedehe, C. E., Kuhn, M., & Fukuda, Y. (2017).
Assessing multi-satellite remote sensing, reanalysis, and land surface models' products in
characterizing agricultural drought in East Africa. Remote sensing of environment, 194,
287-302.
Ayana, E. K., Ceccato, P., Fisher, J. R., & DeFries, R. (2016). Examining the relationship
between environmental factors and conflict in pastoralist areas of East Africa. Science of
The Total Environment, 557, 601-611.
Fisher, M., Abate, T., Lunduka, R. W., Asnake, W., Alemayehu, Y., & Madulu, R. B. (2015).
Drought tolerant maize for farmer adaptation to drought in sub-Saharan Africa:
Determinants of adoption in eastern and southern Africa. Climatic Change, 133(2), 283-
299.
Franchini, M., & Mannucci, P. M. (2015). Impact on human health of climate changes.
European journal of internal medicine, 26(1), 1-5.
Gizaw, M. S., & Gan, T. Y. (2017). Impact of climate change and El Niño episodes on droughts
in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate Dynamics, 49(1-2), 665-682.
McNally, A., Shukla, S., Arsenault, K. R., Wang, S., Peters-Lidard, C. D., & Verdin, J. P.
(2016). Evaluating ESA CCI soil moisture in East Africa. International journal of applied
earth observation and Geoinformation, 48, 96-109.

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Vrieling, A., Meroni, M., Mude, A. G., Chantarat, S., Ummenhofer, C. C., & de Bie, K. C.
(2016). Early assessment of seasonal forage availability for mitigating the impact of
drought on East African pastoralists. Remote sensing of environment, 174, 44-55.