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Mon, 13:32 28 Apr 2008 GMT17

 
E. African floods

Last reviewed: 21-09-2007

FLOODS MAKE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS HOMELESS


People walk along the Shamba Jipya bridge which was destroyed by floods along the Mombasa-Tanzania route in Msambweni, on the Kenyan coast, Nov. 14, 2006.<br> REUTERS/Joseph Okanga
People walk along the Shamba Jipya bridge which was destroyed by floods along the Mombasa-Tanzania route in Msambweni, on the Kenyan coast, Nov. 14, 2006.
REUTERS/Joseph Okanga
Severe flooding triggered by heavy rainfall has caused havoc for hundreds of thousands of people across eastern Africa in 2007. In some places, the floods are reported to be the worst in decades, affecting more than one million people across the region by September.

  • In some countries, 2007 floods worst in decades
  • Livelihoods already hampered by conflicts and poverty
  • Rainfall increasingly unpredictable

    Tropical East Africa customarily has two rainy seasons each year, from around March to May and October to December. But experts say climate change is making rainfall increasingly unreliable - and in 2007, heavy rains came at odd times.

    When fresh floods arrived in 2007, the region was still recovering from widespread flooding during the 2006 October-December rainy season. The 2006 emergency affected more than 1.5 million people, mainly in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan.

    Even before that, many people in the region were already struggling to get by following a regional drought in 2005-2006 that killed a large proportion of livestock and left nomadic herders dependent on food aid.

    "These extremes of weather are exactly what have been predicted," commented Andrew Pendleton, senior climate policy analyst at Christian Aid in September 2007. "Long dry periods followed by short, torrential rainy spells are creating havoc. Harvests are being destroyed with the result people are no longer able to feed themselves. The situation is only going to get worse unless we take action now."

    In the summer-to-autumn period of 2007, the East African countries most affected by flooding are Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. In central Africa, Rwanda, Chad and Central African Republic have also experienced damaging floods, although on a lesser scale.

    Uganda and Sudan are bearing the brunt, with around 300,000 people affected in Uganda and more than half a million in Sudan. Across the regions, homes, roads and bridges have been washed away. Food stocks, crops and livestock have been destroyed, creating food shortages and damaging people's ability to make a living. A shortage of clean drinking water has raised the threat of waterborne diseases.

    Aid agencies have launched appeals for extra funds to cope with the emergency. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has also stressed the need for longer-term efforts to help African countries cope with flooding.

    "Not only must we, and our partners, bring emergency food, shelter and access to safe water to people in dire need, but we must also plan and finance longer-term, sustainable disaster preparedness measures, such as prepositioning stocks, building flood-proof bore holes and wells, setting up local emergency communications systems, as well as increasing the numbers of Red Cross volunteers trained in disaster management techniques," said IFRC operations coordinator for Africa, Niels Scott, in a statement.


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