Drought continues to haunt Ethiopia. Lacking means of fighting drought, millions of lives will be threatened and the catastrophe will have long-term effects. The Ethiopian government has predicted that as many as 14 million people, or 20 percent of its total population, will be at extreme risk by March.
Regional experts believe that the present drought and the food crisis it threatens is worse than the 1984-85 famine. The annual rains that should have fallen from July to October were almost non-existent this year. Rains have failed in Ethiopia in the past but people today are less able to cope because of increasing poverty.
Ethiopia’s per capita annual income is estimated at $110 which means it is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than 85 percent of Ethiopians live by subsistence farming using techniques unchanged for thousands of years. Less than 5 percent of arable land is irrigated. The population has doubled in 25 years but food production has not kept pace. People are said to be eating wild food such as cactus leaves and potentially toxic berries. Women are cutting trees illegally to sell as charcoal. Prices of grain have skyrocketed while those for livestock have collapsed. Last week Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said during a visit to the affected areas, “The worst natural manifestations in living memory have so far killed many people and animals.”
Ethiopia’s drought problems — and those in neighboring countries — are the result of wider historical and structural forces. Ecological factors must be placed in a social context. Food shortages transformed Africa from substance-based production to cash-crop economies. The displacement of large populations, which began in the age of slavery, had long-term effects upon Africa’s capacities to combat natural forces.
Ethiopia and its neighbors have squandered their limited national resources on useless and unproductive military pursuits. The two-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea claimed tens of thousands of lives and over half a million people were forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian conditions in both countries were a source of serious concern. The suffering of refugees was due to famine as much as war. The region’s military conflicts caused a net drain on productive capacities of its societies.
The present level of death and destruction in Ethiopia is terrible. The time has come for the international community to seek a comprehensive solution and to collectively focus on development, addressing the challenges posed by the drought. Whatever the outcome of international efforts, the fact remains that the drought will continue to affect the Ethiopian people most severely.
Dealing with the consequences of Africa’s problems is far more expensive than dealing with causes. In other words, preventing famine and drought would surely be cheaper than curing it. A prime condition for development anywhere in the world is demilitarization as well as expending resources, both human and material, productivity and peace.
Arab News Features 25 December 2002
