Increasing access to water in extremely arid parts of sub-Saharan Africa can help nomadic livestock farmers in the short term.
Increasing access to water in extremely arid parts of sub-Saharan Africa can help nomadic livestock farmers in the short term. However, in the long run it may lead to serious consequences for their livelihoods. This is shown by new research from Uppsala University, published in Nature Climate Change.
“When you increase access to water in arid areas, often as an urgent emergency measure, it becomes easier for livestock owners to stay there longer. However, that in turn increases the demand for water and pasture for their animals, to a level that isn’t there, and that risks having a severe impact on the population and reducing their resilience to drought and climate change,” says Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Professor of Environmental Analysis at Uppsala University.
Millions of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are affected by drought, which often leads to water crises, famine and migration. Drought is particularly disastrous in drylands, which typically experience great variation in precipitation, with short rainy periods followed by dry spells lasting for months. The communities in these areas mostly consist of nomadic livestock farmers. Seasonal movements of herds are the traditional strategy used by nomadic livestock farmers around the world to deal with drought.
Read more at Uppsala University
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