Water scarcity and climate change in the Sahel

The Sahel is the region in Africa where the Sahara desert meets sub-Saharan tropical Africa.  This semi-arid belt runs east to west across the continent and includes the countries of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea.

WATER is essential for life particularly in the Sahel and a condition for social and economic development. Food security and desertification control are dependent on this very scarce resource. In the Sahel, only 47% of the total population, including less than 25% of the rural population, had access to drinking water at the end of the past decade, whilst sanitation is very poor in the urban areas and almost non-existent in the rural areas.  In the Sahel, According to WHO, 80% of diseases affecting the population are more or less directly associated with water and waterborne diseases are said to be among the most important causes of mortality or morbidity;

Now the people of the Sahel have one more thing to worry about – climate change. Year by year, little by little, the fertile areas of the Sahel dry up and become sand. This means that the mostly nomadic people who lived in those areas are pushed south in search of water and land on which to graze their cattle.

Please donate to help improve access to potable water for the populations of the Sahel.

http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/pr/2700/proj2649a.html

Thank you.

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David Musenge

1st Floor

36 The Market Square

London, England N9 0TZ

United Kingdom

+442988026161

David.musenge@conserveafrica.org.uk