africawaterandenvironmentchallenges

"For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.  18  The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.  19  They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.  20  The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[ a ][ b ]  21  Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.  22  Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died." Bible - Genesis 7 - BibleGetaway A long time ago, humans were afraid about rainfall. It has been for a long time an significant natural threat for humans, and many myths and legends are based on disasters caused by water flows. In Freetown, it continues to be a nightmare...

FLOODINGS against DESERTIFICATION As I said in my previous post, water scarcity is responsible for the degradation of the environment, economy and society. Usually, biologists assert that water is life. But I am not sure that Sierra Leone's population would agree with this statement. I plan to talk about the Sierra Leone case study in my next post to highlight this point. Is water really life? Source : Ked Youzhu Improvment of pluviometric rates : consequence of floodings ? Despite the fact that African pluviometric rates are not at the same level as before the droughts in the 70's, it has been found that they have actually been recovering since the 90's ( L.Descroix et al . , 2015). As pluviometric rates are recovering, floodings have also been more frequently observed in Africa, especially in the western regions ( P.OZET, D.PERRIN, 2014). For instance, though the interior Delta of Niger had seen the flood plains disapp...

Desertification in Tunisia : colonization and lifestyle My last post was quite general and I introduced a wide challenge : Desertification. This post will be dedicated to Tunisia, a country which illustrates this phenomenon.  The case of desertification in Tunisia is really interesting for the history of its establishment and permits to break the shortcomings about causes of desertification and give other factors of land degradation. Tunisia and desertification  : Deserts in Tunisia Source : MediaTerre First, Tunisia is characterised by recurring droughts which can be observed sometimes through the period of two or three years succulently. There was a drought that was noticed from 1904 to 1907 (Dhaou, 2003). It is also a region which has a limited availability in water resources ( M.Fetoui 2011). It’s easy to see that these features are the perfect conditions for a desertification establishment. As genera...

AFRICA IS DRY Sorry guys, but today I am going to confirm my representation of Africa as a dry region. It seems that Africa had been touched by droughts these last three decades, especially in dry areas (arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid). Arid areas, composed of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid zones, are characterised by (among others) their rainfall rates (arid <400mm/y, semi-arid 400-900mm/y and sub-humide 900-1400mm/y). It is said in a report ( M.Requier-Desjardins et al. 2006) that arid zones are described as hydric deficit areas. Arid zones are the most touched by precipitation decline, and variability has been more observed in arid and West African regions during the 70's ( M.Requier-Desjardins et al. 2006). Some studies state that since the 1970's, Africa has shown a tendency to aridification which is not observed on the same way everywhere on the continent but globally asserted by a rate of precipitation under the normal amount. ( MahamanOUEDRAOGO ...