One of my main concerns is the emphasis on economic growth rather than sustainable development. This continuous to be the case, while we clearly witness the consequences of climate change all around us. And while we all know that the climate change we are witnessing is the result of man’s doings to the planet, we continue to behave the same and don’t do enough to turn things around, while we still can.

With the climate summit in Sharm el-Sheik just behind us, I presume that what was agreed upon will take its time to materialise. Meanwhile we need to be aware about the risks that climate change is exposing us to and act if we want to turn things around.

Hand in hand with factors like population growth, land fragmentation, deforestation, erosion and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, climate change causes natural disasters as we are experiencing more severe weather extremes like droughts and flooding.

Quite a large part of our own population lives in disaster prone areas. That disasters happen every now and then in some parts of the country is not new. It is not for nothing that there are organizations and institutions in place, whose mandate it is to deal with disaster, although they may be more prepared for drought and famine related disasters than sudden floods or an earthquake for example.

Globally, as the mean temperatures are expected to continue to rise, people will migrate to cooler areas in the future, increasing the pressure on land and its resources. Poor people will suffer more as their options to deal with the changing environment are limited. When visiting the rural areas of Ethiopia, one cannot help but notice that many surrounding hills and mountains are now almost barren, where there were forests before. Massive forest and soil degradation can be observed everywhere, while more and more people settle on and cultivate steeper hill slopes as well as riverbanks. Narrowing of floodplains due to investment and settlement is partly responsible for a faster water flow resulting in so called flash floods. In other words, while there is no vegetation anymore to hold back the water upstream, rivers turn into narrow channels through which the water rages to lower levels, taking and damaging everything in its course of destruction. With the increase of extreme weather events and the mounting demographic pressure on fragile ecosystems, we are witnessing more frequent and serious floods resulting in more loss of lives, assets, and livelihoods.           

Now, even though we are not a major industrial nation in comparison to the world’s giants, like the USA, Europe and China, that doesn’t mean we don’t have to pull our weight in adapting our industrial practices in the direction of reduced carbon emission, environment friendly practice, clean production and effective waste management. There is in fact no time to waste to pull up our socks and become serious about the relations between production, waste, and pollution, affecting not only our land but the global atmosphere, which we are using as a natural resource. Perhaps we don’t have that much influence on the global climate changes, but we must be prepared to do what we can ourselves at national and at community level, as people are exposed to the hazards of climate change and environmental degradation. So, what can we do to turn this scenario around and help reduce the risk of disaster? Here are a few suggestions, which are by no means exhaustive:

1. While we need to have capacity to deal with disasters, where and when they occur, we also need to look into what can be done to prevent disaster. In other words, we need to become proactive rather than remain reactive.
2.  Proactive measures would include urgent environmental rehabilitation and water shed management.
3. While attending to the above, we also need to look into alternative livelihood strategies and energy in order to halt the ongoing logging of trees. Forest products like firewood and wood for construction can only be harvested in a sustainable way if a forest management system is in place which includes quota for logging against replanting of trees. And as long as firewood is the cheapest option for the poor to cook and charcoal remains a source of income to provide urban centres with energy, we are fighting a lost battle. Alternatives must be found.
4. Protective measures should be taken urgently in flood prone rivers and urban centres, which could include physical as well biological measures like planting trees in the river corridors.
5. Consider flooding risks in land use and urban planning for investments and settlement.
6. Include communities in comprehensive risk assessments and use participatory planning tools for activities that will reduce the hazards and the community’s vulnerability.    
7. Use early warning mechanisms for droughts, famine and also flooding in order to proactively deal with the threat of disaster.

The time to act is now.

Ton Haverkort