Mycenae, one of the cultural centres of ancient Greece, which had been prosperous for centuries, finally became ruins due to the severe drought and the following famine 1200 BC. The Mycenaean civilization vanished along with the city as well. In modern times, damage caused by drought is more shocking.
According to statistics, five of the World Top Ten Major Natural Disasters happened in the 20th century are droughts; others are three earthquakes, one typhoon and one tsunami.
The severe drought in Africa (1968-1973) claimed 2 million lives, hit 25 million people in 36 countries and forced over 10 million victims to flee home. China is also frequently hit by drought and three out of the world five major droughts in the 20th century happened in China.
Yet due to the shortage of water conservancy facilities, Tanzania is still faced with severe water shortage which acted as bottleneck for social and economic development and the improvement of people's livelihood.
The population of Tanzania’s central region, comprising Dodoma, Singida and Tabora, is exposed to a range of serious drought-related diseases, in addition to the nutritional impact of lack of rainfall. Prevalent illnesses include malnutrition, trachoma (a sight-threatening eye infection), dysentery, cholera and diarrhea. New research shows that by 2030, even if the drought frequency and intensity remain stable, 5 per cent of the region’s population will go hungry. In addition, 5 per cent of the population will suffer from trachoma and almost 200,000 children under five from diarrhea. This would be accompanied by many serious cases of cholera and dysentery.
According to a study, Tanzania has witnessed six major droughts in the last 30 years. The latest numbers from the UN suggest that 24 million people are facing food insecurity in eastern Africa alone, not counting millions of people in the southern region
The government should therefore urgently evaluate the impact of drought and make short, medium and long-term interventions to save people's lives. Measures should include supplying relief food to households worst affected by food shortages, supplying more food to the market to stabilise prices and restricting cereal exports.
Such an evaluation would make it possible to determine whether there was a need to import cereals or ask the private sector not to export grain and sell it domestically instead.
As for medium and long-term interventions the government should promote irrigation farming as that would guarantee good harvests even during periods of adverse weather. It is time Tanzania made the best use of the over 29 million hectares that is suitable for irrigation farming. This land is currently grossly under-utilised.
We also feel that the government should release food from the national reserve to stabilise skyrocketing cereal prices. Fears of famine were heightened when the Tanzania Meteorological Agency announced that the country received below-average rainfall in November and December, last year.
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