Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Tesfalem Waldyes
7 April 2008
Three days after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had a showdown, on March 18, with his Parliamentary political rivals over their allegations of neglect of the drought in the eastern and southern parts of the country, when delivering his half-year report, Tesfalem Waldyes, Special to Fortune, was dispatched to Borena, one of the 17 zones in the Oromia Regional State.
What he saw was an alarmingly escalating drought that caused a rising death toll of cattle and insufficient humanitarian responses by local authorities. Local people felt neglected. Experts warn that should the rains fail to fall in the coming season, the consequences will be too horrific to contemplate.
They were about 16 women, scattered on half of the road on the highway not far from the town of wassa, 276Km south of Addis Abeba; when cars were passing, they tried to stop drivers with loud chanting and waving of their long sticks. They were not beggars; a mix of young and old, these married women were performing a ritual known in the Oromo culture as "Atette Sera", a spiritual communications with God so that rain could come to their village.
They said that they had walked all the way from Toga Woraresa, an area located between the towns of Shashemne and Awassa. This area had not experienced rain for the past two months. Thus, they performed the ritual throughout the week, hoping that they could collect 40 to 50 Br each day from drivers passing by, in order to buy goats to sacrifice to God, until such time that they would see clouds hovering in their village's sky.
"God will hear our prayers," said Kalele Edao, a group leader.
Friday, March 21, was their lucky day; they had collected 40 Br before it got dark and they were pleased to see that the sky over head was covered by a cloud. Kalele and the other women saw cloud as a good sign that pleasant days were ahead of them. There would be rain, and their cattle could find something green to graze.
In the past few months, they had watched their cattle become weaker and weaker by the day. They had witnessed the deaths of their neighbors' cattle. Their stocks of grain and cereal had become almost empty. They foresee the worst, should it fail to rain in the next few weeks and water their dried up land. They are not alone in their gloomy forecast.
Reports are emerging from international organizations alarmed by the combined effects of a strong La Nina weather condition and the cooling of Western Indian Ocean waters; both developments lead to a forecast that there will be below normal rainfall during the March to May rainy season in countries along the Horn of Africa, including Ethiopia. According to a Food Security Update for East Africa, released in February 2008 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), these environmental developments have consequences such as unusual livestock migration as well as significant deterioration of livestock body conditions, negatively impacting both on livestock production and their market value in these countries.
"The March to May rains have the widest geographic coverage of any seasonal rainfall in the region," says the report. "But most importantly, they are very crucial for both livestock and crop production in the eastern equatorial parts of the region, covering Somalia, most of Kenya, southern and eastern Ethiopia and parts of Djibouti, where they contribute 50pc or more of the annual rains received."
In Ethiopia, reports reveal that the food security situation in Oromia, Somali, Gambella and Southern regional states has deteriorated in the past two months. Kalele's village is one of the most affected areas in the southern parts of the country. Nevertheless, it can hardly be described as depressing when compared to Borena area, one of the 17 zones in the Oromia Regional State.
According to reports from rapid assessment conducted by experts from zonal offices and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the area, such as SOS Sahel and GOAL Borena, the drought situation in Borena has undoubtedly increased in its size and scale since January 2008. For instance, the number of needy population increased from 88,000 people then to 314,907 now, according to their findings.
They attribute this to the poor rains recorded in the past two rainy seasons: the main one, Ganna, extended from March to May, and the showery rain in Hageya, lasting a long from September to November. As a result, grazing lands have turned to reddish dust and water ponds, wells and boreholes have dried up. Lack of pasture and insufficient water has caused the death of a significant number of cattle, almost daily.
In February 2008 alone, 14,334 livestock perished in Dillo, Dire, Dahas, Teltele, Arero, Miyo, Moyale and Yabello, weredas all found in Borena, according to United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The poor condition of livestock and their subsequent deaths also led to the malnourishment of children and the elderly. Shortages in food availability, combined with unhealthy water sources, also caused outbreaks of diseases in some of these areas. There are reports of people dying from epidemics of meningitis and measles.
There is perhaps no other place than Borena Zone to demonstrate the most visible but ghastly effects of the drought. It covers 48.75skm, with a vast area of semi-arid lands. Decades ago, drought used to occur in every eight to 10 year cycle. Then it was narrowed to five-years; in recent years, the gap declined to two years. Some reports claim that Borena Zone has lost 75pc of its herds of livestock during the 2001 drought. After four years, another disastrous drought hit the area, leading to considerable livestock deaths, incidences of human diseases, malnutrition, migration, and overall depletion of the traditional coping mechanism of the people there.
Kotu Dukicha, 80, is a resident of Melbana Kebele, in Miyo Wereda of Borena Zone. He has witnessed so many of these droughts; but he says the amount of rain he has seen this year was the lowest of all the other years.
"I have never seen such rain scarcity in my whole life," he told Fortune.
Borena's average rainfall is about 650mm; however, Kotu's village hardly received this amount during the past four years. Experts fear that the gap between the recurrent droughts is increasingly narrowing every year. They also see the scale and extent of drought this year as different from the one in 2006.
"The drought has seriously affected the pastoralist weredas of our zone," Geda Robe, vice administrator of Borena Zone, told Fortune. "In a significant way, it had affected six weredas a few months back, but now it has spread to 10 weredas."
Cattle Are Dying
Kalcha Waka, 30, lives in Melbana Keble of Miyo Wereda, one of the eight severely affected areas in the zone. One morning a week ago, he was helplessly looking at his dying cow, his eyes filled with sorrow and he was crushed. Having lost the ability to walk, two of Kalcha's cows were stuck in one place, glued to something on the fenced barn. Just a few meters from the barn, the skins of six cattle were fastened to the ground, so that they could dry.
After counting the dried skins kept in his hut, it was clear that he had lost more than 30 of his livestock in the past two months, although he claimed to have lost 80. It takes stamina to withstand the foul smell that permeates the air should there be an attempt to count the 45 or so dead cattle littered on the ground behind his hut.
"I had bought a stock of hay for 4,600 Br to save them," Kalecha told Fortune. "I brought a veterinary kit to cure them from any possible diseases; however, I could not succeed."
Kalecha's 80 cattle were among the 1,413 livestock registered as dead in Miyo Wereda. While increasing by the day, the number of livestock death in all affected weredas of Borena Zone has risen to 17,204 animals up until the first week of March 2008, disclosed a report produced by the Rapid Assessment Team dispatched to the areas.
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