Perhaps the only good thing
Saidi Mwinyimvua remembers about the flash floods that hit Dar es Salaam City
on December 19, 2011 is the small business he was able to start without any
financial capital.
The floods which many people
relate to the effects of climate change occurred at night and so caught many
people unawares, washing away various items including sofa sets, utensils,
plastic chairs and tables, wooden tables, TV and radio sets and other property.
Mwinyimvua who lives close to
Luhanga River had just to stand patiently on the riverbank and fish out
whatever item he could get from the fast flowing river.
By daybreak, he had collected a
pile of assorted items which he began to sell to his neighbours and whoever
happened to pass in the area.
Three years down the road,
Mwinyimvua is still doing business, having replenished his stock of goods in
April, this year, thanks to again to unusually heavy rains that hit Dar es
Salaam, causing floods and bringing in more 'merchandise' from upstream.
"The floods are a blessing
in disguise. I fish out from the river an assortment of materials to restock my
'shop' without having to spend any money.
I also have a ready market for
the goods," he says. For him, the irregular pattern of the rainy season
and the unusually heavy rainfall are a blessing; he has been able to establish
a small business without having to invest any money and prays that there is a
repeat of such floods from time to time so as to sustain his business.
But Magnus Njenge, a smallscale
farmer in Mwala village of Kilombero District has a nasty experience with
out-of season rainfall. Late in June 2013 when farmers had harvested their rice
crop and waited to take it to their granaries, it rained heavily.
Most of the crop was destroyed.
Although the rice could still be used for food, its quality had deteriorated
and would not fetch a good price in the market. "No one had expected that
it would rain at this time of the year.
It was quite unusual and not part
of the trend we are used to," he says. "We had a bumper crop that
suddenly turned into a bad one. No one would want to buy the rice," he
adds. As if that was not enough, in early October of the same year, there was a
heavy downpour, again contrary to the expectations of the farmers.
This is the time when they should
be starting to prepare their farms for the next planting season, but the
unexpected heavy rain submerged some farms and their owners could not cultivate
them.
They had to look for other farms
and where none were obtained freely, they had to rent. "Renting a farm is
expensive and after the crop was destroyed, very few people had the money to
rent land for farming," says Njenge. The woes of climate-related disasters
are not limited to Tanzania or Africa alone.
Across the world people
experience loss of lives, livelihoods and property while a few communities gain
from climate change. In fact any small gains are overshadowed by the huge
catastrophe that the majority of developing and industrialised countries
suffer.
In Europe, for example, Serbia
and Bosnia experienced the worst floods in 120 years following a day of heavy
rains in May, this year that destroyed major roads and railways, killed several
people and left a total of 150,000 homes in both countries without power.
For Bosnia it was the worst
rainfall since 1894. For Serbia, "This is the greatest flooding disaster
ever. Not only in the past 100 years; this has never happened in Serbia's
history," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was quoted by Reuters to
have said. According to local weather reports, more rain had fallen in one day
that in the first four months of this year.
In 2013, the USA, the State of
California experienced the worst drought since 1895. "California saw less
rain and snow in 2013 than it had in the state's 119 year record and the
drought has continued in 2014," writes Eric Roston in the Bloomberg
magazine. Brazil has also had its share of climate related disasters.
Until October, this year, the
city of Sao Paulo had lost 95 per cent of its water following nine months of
unprecedented drought.
The drought has also affected 29
other Brazilian cities. China and other countries in Asia have also continued
to suffer the impacts of climate change that have caused them billions of
dollars in damage of infrastructure, environment and property as well as loss
of lives and livelihoods.
According to the 2012 Climate
Variability Monitor report, climaterelated disasters contributed to 400,000
deaths in 2010, from hunger and communicable diseases with developing countries
being most affected.
The Fifth Assessment Report
(AR5)of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published early
this year highlights, " The striking feature of climate change impacts is
that they are occurring from tropics to the poles, from small islands to large
continents and from the wealthiest countries to the poorest."
With climate induced disasters,
the issue is not so much as how much a country has suffered in terms of
destruction and loss, rather it is what measures that country should take (has
taken) to reduce the severity of impacts and build resilience.
In their recent meeting held in
South Africa, members of BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and
China) noted that adaptation is usually driven by the extent of adverse effects
of climate change already experienced and those likely to happen in future.
"Adaptation requires a
global response... ..It requires adequate resource allocation and it calls for
a global response," reads in part, a statement issued after the meeting.
In effect, adaptation should
assess the vulnerability of communities such as farmers, pastoralists and
fishermen so that it can help societies cope with the negative effects and
identify opportunities from which they can benefit.
The Keeping Track of Adaptation
Actions in Africa (KTAAA), a recent publication by UNEP, say that climate
change adaptation should offer new opportunities to affected and vulnerable
communities.
"Currently, adaptation
actions are prioritised for implementation on as-needed basis typically applied
to high-risk communities, ecosystems and sectors instead of being prioritised
on the potential of the action to generate environmental, social and economic
benefits," reads the publication in part.
Looking at why governments are
slow to take adaptation actions even in the face of increasing climate- related
disasters, the publication attributes the situation partly to lack of a time
limit to adapt.
Adaptation to climate change has
no fixed time horizon as do emission reduction targets ... this undermines the
urgency to act now in adapting to challenges especially in developing countries
where capabilities to respond are limited."
It adds that it is important for
adaptation actions to create new sources of income as safety net to crop loss,
"And such measures should improve rural livelihoods and the economy as a
whole."
According to some scholars, small
farmers in Tanzania and developing countries in general are highly vulnerable
to climate change due to dependence on rain-fed agriculture. Bearing in mind
that these farmers don't get timely and adequate information on changing
rainfall patterns and seasons, they end up losing a lot of crops.
So what are the best options for
adaptation that would save a small scale farmer in Tanzania from crop loss and
hunger? Adaptation options vary depending on the nature of impacts and the
geographical area; which means options for small farmers in semi-arid areas
would be different from those who live in areas with high-intensity rainfall.
Farmers living in high
temperature areas would be required to take different measures from those
applied by their counterparts in the other two areas as they would also
experience different impacts.
This is in keeping with the Fifth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (AR5) which
highlights that people, societies and ecosystems are vulnerable around the
world, but with different vulnerability in several places.
The report adds that adaptation
options can help address climate change, but no single option is sufficient by
itself. Effective implementation depends on policies and cooperation at all
scales and can be enhanced through integrated responses that link adaptation
and mitigation with other societal objectives.
"Farmers living in semi-arid
areas would be required to grow drought-resistant crops. Here there is little
rainfall and the capacity of the soil to retain water is also low.
So to be on the safe side, the
farmers should go for drought-resistant crops," says Prof PiusYanda of the
Climate Change Centre, University of Dar es Salaam.
He adds that it is important for
farmers living in these areas to learn rain water harvesting techniques so as
to capture and make good use of water from whatever small amount of rainfall
they may get.
"Water and soil conservation
would be one of the best options of adaptation for farmers in these
areas," he says. Farmers in the Southern Highlands region face a different
situation.
"Here there is high
intensity rainfall which in most cases causes soil erosion especially where
destruction of natural vegetation is significant. Erosion washes away nutrients
that are vital for crop growth.
There is need to tame excessive
water because too much water weakens the soil's capacity to retain nutrients
and this leads to the need to use fertiliser," adds Prof Yanda But there
are farmers who live in areas where there is a significant rise in temperature.
Their crops are likely to be
attacked by new pests and diseases. So their adaption measure would be to go
for disease resistant crops. Yet with little commitment to reduce Greenhouse
Gas Emmission, mainly by developed countries, the level of global warming is
set to rise, making it difficult for countries to stretch to the limit their
adaptation capacities.
"Under the circumstance, the
best adaptation option for small farmers would be insurance schemes against
crop losses. This should go hand-in-hand with provision of credit facilities to
meet costs such as purchase of new seeds, fertiliser and herbicides," says
Prof Yanda.
He adds, "When farmers are
ensured against crop losses due to natural disasters they are guaranteed of
their lives because they can access other sources of food hence the need to
introduce such schemes more farmers in the country."
His suggestion is supported by
Jean-Christophe Debar, Director of the Farm Foundation, who says that despite
being introduced over 200 years ago and proven effective in USA, EU and more
recently in Brazil, agriculture insurance is still in its infancy in
African-Caribbean- Pacific Countries (ACP).
"Africa is lagging behind,
representing only 0.5 per cent of the global value of agriculture insurance premiums,"
he says in an article published in the August 2014 issue of SPORE, the magazine
for agriculture and rural development in ACP countries.
The publication highlights
further that by end of 2015, an estimated one million Eastern Africa farmers
will be insured and protected from losses due to unpredictable weather and that
over 180,000 farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania are already benefiting from
index-based weather-linked crop insurance.
Talking about challenges facing
various societies in taking adaptation measures, Prof Yanda says that in some
cases it is just the question of changing behaviour and financial costs are a
non-issue.
"Some measures like
conserving natural vegetation along river banks, banning construction of
settlements in flood-prone areas and avoiding deforestation, are not costly;
people only need to think and act differently," he says.
"But the few extension
workers that we have are not well-equipped to help farmers deal with climate
change. They have little knowledge of the issues and this, coupled with poor
working conditions, renders them unable to give assistance to farmers," he
adds. The manner in which adaptation measures are designed and implemented also
leaves a lot to be desired.
Most of them are national level
activities which bear no particular impact on a specific community. There is
therefore a need to design local-specific programmes which will involve the
participation of communities. Such programmes can strengthen and enhance the
resilience of communities and the country in general, against impacts of
climate change.
