World Bank warns of impending drought
The World Bank has issued an alert report of an impending drought that might sweep through several African countries, including Malawi.
In a report titled ‘Africa’s Purse’ released in Abuja, Nigeria on Monday, the World Bank said a terrible drought will ravage several African countries between now and 2018.
In the report, the World Bank painted a gloomy scenario of what would happen to agriculture and food prices in the affected countries in the event of the predicted drought.
According to the forecast, the first wave of drought would hit the listed countries between now and 2015 whereas the second wave would strike the others on the continent from 2016 to 2018.
The report urged countries on the continent to make adequate preparations to avert the many implications of the drought.
“In Africa, droughts are recurrent events, with adverse effects on local communities and the ecosystem. In a region where the majority of people depend on farming or raising animals, droughts inevitably have very negative consequences,” warned the report.
In the light of the warning, Shedrack Madlion, an environmentalist and executive director, Admiral Agricultural and Environmental Care in the Federal Government of Nigeria and World Bank in particular, has advised all countries in Africa to begin urgent promotion of irrigation farming to ensure food sufficiency and security to prevent the consequences of a forecast drought in Africa.
Countries likely to be first hit by the drought include Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda.
However, World Bank Malawi communications officer Zeria Banda said she did not know anything about the report since she was on a holiday.
In an interview with Malawi News Agency, director of environmental affairs at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Management, Aloysius Kampelewera, also expressed ignorance about the report, saying the ministry is not ready to tell whether Malawi will be highly affected because it is currently not aware of the report.
Malawi remains an agro-based economy with overdependence on rain-fed agriculture, hence forecasts of droughts paint a gloomy picture.
