Situation in drought-stricken region improves, but fears remain

Rains have improved the situation in eastern Ethiopia’s drought-stricken Somali region, but fears remain of major water and food shortages, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its monthly report, issued on Tuesday. It warned that a "critical situation seems imminent" during the early months of 2004. "The problem of water will be critical in many parts of the region, particularly during the forthcoming Jilaal [dry period before the onset of the rainy] season," OCHA Ethiopia said. Fears had been mounting of a new emergency after critical rains in October failed in the region, resulting in a situation threatening pastoralists and causing pasture shortages for their animals. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said recently that unseasonable rains in December had "depressed the anticipated severity of the drought situation" and helped to improve pasture. In its weekly emergency bulletin, issued on 10 January, WFP said that birkeds (concrete-lined underground water reservoirs) had been replenished by virtue of the rains. It also stated that the "usually very difficult dry season" preceding the onset of rains due in March or April would be shorter than usual because of the unseasonable rains. Even so, some 1.1 million people will need food aid for between three and seven months, particularly poor and vulnerable groups, according to the government and the UN. WFP said large numbers of livestock that had migrated into certain areas had remained there and were exerting additional pressure on pasture. "Their continued presence in the region will accelerate the deterioration of the just-improved pasture and water resources, and in turn this will affect the already fragile and precarious food security situation," WFP noted. It also warned that in other areas, such as the Fik, Degehabur, Gode and Jijiga zones, the rains had been "too erratic and short-lived" for crop production activities to be carried out. OCHA pointed out that the difficulties had been compounded by an ongoing livestock ban imposed by the Gulf states on the Horn of Africa over fears of importing disease. "The import restriction has become the major cause for the accumulation of livestock assets in the region as a whole," OCHA said in its report. "In addition, overpopulation by livestock has compounded the problem of the already poorly resourced veterinary services of the region." OCHA also reported that schools in the Somali region had been closed because of the drought as many children had moved with their families in search of pasture. It went on to express concern over "the appropriateness of the rations" being distributed to families in the region, with some just receiving grain but not pulses and oil, which were vital for preventing the onset of malnutrition. "In the field of nutrition, there are indications of growing malnutrition in the affected areas because of repeated episodes of drought, resulting in food insecurity, loss of livestock assets, diminished purchasing power and destitution," OCHA added. "The problem has been increasing year after year due to the lack of basic health services and the absence of responsive recovery/rehabilitation programmes in the region." The government’s federal early warning system had stressed that water shortages were reaching "emergency proportions" in the Somali region and along the border with Kenya. The warning followed the late start of the Deyr rains, which normally start in October and are critical for pastoralists in the region. It was the failure of the Deyr rains in 1999 that sparked the devastating drought in the region, which is estimated to have claimed 50,000 lives. The delay also comes on the back of a country-wide drought that left 13.2 million people dependent on international food aid hand-outs.