DanChurchAid
Ethiopia
Climate Witnesses: A critical situation
30.07.2009:
Traditionally, Dehana district in the mountains of central Ethiopia is very fertile, but climate changes mean that almost fifty per cent of the population needs food assistance.
On Sunday 5 July, it finally rained in Dehana district in the mountains of central Ethiopia after eight months without a drop of water. The area looks like a dusty stone desert, even if you can see that it actually is agricultural land with terraced fields. The poverty is extreme; half of the population is unable to feed itself.
It was not always so. The land was very fertile and known as flowing with (goat) milk and honey. The dramatic changes have taken place within the last few years. Elderly people who grew up in the area can describe how the foundation of their livelihood was disintegrating.
The unpredictable rain
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| Mulu Zebene has experienced the rapid climate changes within the last few years. |
Mulu Zebene, an elderly man, tells about how Dehana looked like before:
“When I was a child only few people lived here. The soil was extremely fertile; we could grow everything, all was well. The rain always came in March and it rained in March and April. We grew millet and lentils that need a long period of growth, and from May we could plant other crops. At that time, crops were growing in all fields almost all the time.
Now, we can no longer grow crops that need long periods of growth. Our goats are starving, and the bee products are next to nothing. Last year we even experienced heavy rainfall and hailstorms just before the harvest, thus destroying half of the harvest. These changes have not come gradually; no, they have come quite suddenly within the last few years. It is a very dramatic situation for us.”
Read the full-lenght article about the dramatic situation in Ethiopia, how DanChurchAid is helping the people affected and meet more climate witnesses from Dehana:
