News
How Climate change affects me
10th December 2009Written by Abdella Muse
This is Abdella Muse, 47 years old who lives in a medium sized town called Dire Dawa 515 km from the Ethiopian Capital of Addis Abbaba. Abdella is head of a family of six. Until six years ago Abdella was a full time farmer and chairperson of the farmers association next to Dire Dawa Town. Where Abdella lives is especially vulnerable to the recurrent flood hazards. Recently he was selected as a chairperson of the Disaster Risk Reduction committee which helps the community to prepare for floods and droughts by changing the way the community farms, eats and lives it was established by The Jerusalem Children and Community Development Organisation (JeCCDO) Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction project.
Day 4
14/12/2009
This is my last blog, I hope I have given you that insight to how climate change is affecting us here in Dire Dawa. I want to talk to you about how climate change effects our weather.
Climate change has really affected the weather negatively. Now, we have very few rainy days and they are hard to predict. They are scattered over about two months. The most serious was over the last two years when there was almost no rain.
As the number of rainy days declines, the number of hot days increases. The intensity of that heat is getting more powerful. This,added to the incredibly strong winds are all making the quality of our soil so much worse. Its dry and is no better than a waste land.
In the morning it was very hot while in the afternoon it was cloudy - but we have stopped expecting rain even when it does look cloudy.
I think it is clear what the world needs to do. Everybody on this earth should stop or at least reduce activities that lead to climate change. This would support the survival and recovery of all, of us who are affected – especially the world’s very poorest people. In order to bring improvement we all need to stop being selfish.
Day 3
13/12/2009
The biggest effects of climate change on this community shows in farming. Sometimes the rain stops early or we just don’t have rain at all so with the lack of enough rain the amount of crop we grow has really dropped.
Until midday it was so hot (hotter than it used to be five years ago) we were not able to go out for work. I was planning to cut my sorghum but due to the intense sun I am waiting until it is late afternoon when it cools a bit, but I could wait till midnight as there is full moon light.
I’m happy I have a small patch of land to grow crops, a lot of the land which was used for farming has now become waste land which again means that the production of food for our families and animals is low.
We were a community which farmed with cattle but the number of livestock has completely changed with the lack of food and water. So we’re teaching and encouraging our local community to change their thinking, and start keeping goats, chicken and sheep. These animals don’t need as much water. We’re changing our traditional ways to adapt to our changing environment but its very hard.
Day 2
12/12/2009
It’s hard to say we notice the effects of climate change on our health every single day, because it builds up over time. It affects everything really. Today, like many days before, we do not see rain.
A drought here means that our people are getting quite sick, from illnesses like water born diseases - cholera and typhoid which you get when your water is poor quality. So it’s hard to keep your house, your kitchen, your food - and yourself - clean. We're also seeing more cases of malaria and malnutrition. Of course, no rain means no crops so people are going hungry. We have started to show people how to engage in urban agriculture, that is the growing of fruit and vegetables in small spaces, we have also built wells in the area and provide demonstrations as to how to grow new drought resistant crops.
Day 1
11/12/2009
Welcome to my blog, which I’m writing to coincide with the very important Copenhagen conference on climate change. I’m going to give you a small insight to the effects of climate change here in my small community, but the truth is this is happening in communities all over Africa.
My role is to help co-ordinate how we adapt our lives and live with the effects of climate change, which isn’t easy. Climate change has affected us quite seriously. We had major floods back in 2006 which killed over 250 people in our community, Dire Dawa and our neighbouring community Addis Alem. We are prone to major flood and drought, and as a consequence lead to the death of our community members, animals and loss of our possessions. This affects our food and water – often there just isn’t enough for us or the animals. Lots of families here are feeling it so much that they are breaking up and family members move out of the village to find jobs that will help support their family. So I think I can say that climate change is real and effecting us in a real way.
We are trying to survive the best way we know how, in the last year we haven’t had any rain so we are going upstream and harvesting water. This means we have captured and stored water from the last time that it rained. There’s not much but I grew some sorghum (grain, which can survive in drought) with only one day of rain in our area. Fortunately I am ready to harvest a good crop. Years ago I would not have done this and my family would have starved.