Disaster in Borena zone could worsen unless emergency aid reaches the area
By Staff reporter
ADDIS ABABA – Drought in the Borena Zone of Oromia Regional State threatens lives of over 800,000 people and over 2.3 million livestock have so far perished due to the natural catastrophe, sources said.
Sources indicate that people in the zone are suffering from lack of water for failing to get rain for the past five rainy seasons.
The situation that exposed millions of people to face the threat of starvation is said to require emergency response.
Livestock are hit hardest in the area and over 800,000 people are in need of emergency relief aid like food, safe drinking water and medical care, according to sources.
Some are expressing concern that due attention has not been given to the issue by the government and relevant bodies. Some people and opposition parties are voicing concerns regarding the drought in that part of the country.
The Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice, said in its statement that though regional and federal governments are making efforts to respond to the devastating humanitarian consequences of the drought in Borena, sufficient attention, which considers the number of compatriots affected by the catastrophe, has not yet been given.
A joint statement of the UN World Meteorological Agency and humanitarian partners (that embraces OCHA, WFP, Climate Hazards Center, UK-aid, Mercy Corps, IOM and others) has alerted countries about efforts needed in response to draught in the Horn of Africa. The joint statement released on February 16/2023 states that the Horn of Africa is facing an unprecedented, three-year drought, with catastrophic humanitarian impacts.
The alert further stated that the consequences of the multi-year drought will continue in 2023, leaving communities in urgent need of assistance. “Seasonal forecasts suggest a reasonable chance that the upcoming March–May rains will again underperform which, should it occur, would be an unprecedented sixth poor season. …Communities will need years to recover from this historically severe drought.” Therefore, the statement warned governments that regardless of seasonal performance, humanitarian needs will remain high in 2023, and multi-sectoral assistance must be scaled up in order to save lives.
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I feel for the people; it is so sad seeing humans and animals so decimated.
The broader and key question should be: what had the Oromia administration been doing to promote better animal husbandry (eg. limiting the number of animals per unit area to the carrying capacity of pastures while raising productivity), developing and disseminating drought resistant crops and pasture grass, modernizing agriculture in general, promoting water conservation, etc. Obviously, the administration failed to do that for lack of vision, skills, and outright lack of capacity. The regional administration seem to make gross corruption at every opportunity mark of ‘good governance’.
Oromos had been administering their region for years now, and more profoundly over the last three years. But the regional administration had so far not proven itself to be capable of improving the livelihoods of the people, more pointedly those employed in agriculture. Instead, the leaders aka politicians keep trying to blame others for their utter failures, and cover their inadequacies by creating troubles to other peoples and regions. Their primary agenda seems to be to robe what others had built by their blood and sweat for decades, and to attempt to hold back others from moving forward economically; raw jealousy. The high birth rates and exponential growth of the population keep exacerbating the problem.
Time the Oromos youth rise up and remove ‘activists’ who continue to trade on their woes. After all, the future belongs to them, and hence should demand removal from their backs of their self appointed “liberators”, best exemplified by the empty headed Mereras, Mohammeds, Ibsas, Gelebas, etc, etc..
“Water harvesting”.
Water harvesting have been proven to solve water issues in the driest of regions all over the world for decades now. In fact I have seen videos such practices made (in India, China, some Asian countries, some part of Ethiopia) with simple form of locals creating diches to harvest running water.
And same practices could very well be used in this case as well, as stated in the above comment, it comes down to “Lack of leadership” both locally and regionally (Kellil).
Sadly, our “leaders” are focused on the “wrong priorities” such as the laughable “Chaka Project”…
Here are some easy solutions, that can be implemented by organizing the local population using simple tools… making communities, individual households to be able to feed themselves and even end up supplying local markets…
But it requires visionary LEADERSHIP, and small investment.
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=01N-kBSdiZI
India: community efforts… it takes days, not years..
Link = youtube.com/watch?v=-8nqnOcoLqE
Be well
Shimeles was busy saying kumartegnoch while the people of Borena are dying like that…This should be a single reason to remove him from power. What was doing?