Coalesced effort in mitigating drought crises!
Gemechu Tussa
The Ethiopian population has been affected by the ongoing drought conditions prevailing in some parts of the country. Despite efforts of assisting the victims and taking some long lasting solutions, it is uneasy to alleviate it. Previously, the ongoing spell of drought, water shortages and epidemic diseases aggravated the drought problems. The Ethiopian government said recently, turning the spotlight on a problem that has frequently plagued in recent years. Ethiopia relies heavily on seasonal rains for rainfall and water. Whenever there is a shortage of rain, reservoirs, ponds and wells have dried up, causing acute water shortages.
In connection to the current drought, reports from disaster and risk management indicate that, there are about 7.8 million people, who require food assistance and the government needs to have more than 1 billion USD.
In the previous years, it was the government that allotted the required amount of money to save the lives of drought victims as the support from donors was so insignificant. Even at the moment, there is scarce of helping hands as it was in those past three years. If Ethiopia is to wait for foreign hands only as what it was used to do with its past incidents, there would be a lot of deaths.
Along with its consolidated effort to curb drought impacts, the government and the people of Ethiopia have been doing their level best to implement drought mitigation mechanisms and sustain the emerging growth.
The country has been building its economy during the past twenty six years, that contributed to control the severe disaster by itself, but still it needs support from donor countries and development partners.
In fact, the incorporated efforts of the government, the people and stakeholders contributed to avoid death risks due to the impact of the severe drought so far.
Documents from Disaster Prevention and Risk Management Commission indicated that the droughts in the late 60s and the 70s had cost the country 250,000 and 700,000 human life respectively.
Despite scarcity of helping hands from donors and other stake holders, the government allocated 16.5 billion Birr to reduce drought and bring about sustainable development.
The drought mitigation capacity of the country has risen due to the overall economic growth that the public, investors, and regional states have taken part in curbing the impact of the drought.
Besides, allocating their own budgets to assist drought victims in their respective regions, there is state-to-state supports among regions.
It is also believed that apart from assisting the drought victims, it is crucial to carry out schemes that could help to solve such problems in the long run. This could be achieved through rehabilitating the environment.
The country has 18 million hectares of open land to be covered with forest. If this is properly done, it could contribute a lot in reducing the possibility of drought.
What the government has begun on irrigation and water management should also be strengthened and scaled up, so that it could play its share in drought mitigation schemes. The other crucial task is exerting a significant effort in helping farmers increase their productivity through supplying technical and material supports; thereby, working hard to transform the agricultural sector and integrated it with the industrial development is so crucial.
The government, along with the people and a few donors have managed to control the effects of the dire drought but yet not averted altogether. That is why the government of Ethiopia urged international donor organizations and countries to lend their hands as it has been assisting drought victims almost alone.
This time the world is under intense causalities and problems. There are a number of countries and millions of people who deserve support from donor countries. Besides, there are unstable economic and political situations in some of the developed countries. As a result, there are only a few international helping hands to the Ethiopian government in its endeavor to mitigate drought challenges.
In fact, the problem has not become out of the hands of the government. Government officials also confirm that, it will not be beyond the country’s reach. This confidence has emanated from the consolidated endeavors commenced to ensure sustainable economic progress and its gains so far. Therefore, the government and the people of Ethiopia have been assisting drought victims as the entire economy has been well progressing.
This is not propaganda but a reality confirmed by different international organizations. As the World Bank confirms, “Ethiopia’s economy will be the most expansive on the continent for the year 2017,”
The Global Economic Prospect report released this month also stated that, ‘‘Ethiopia’s economic growth is forecast to expand by 8.3 percent in 2017.” The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also released in April this year describes Ethiopia as the new economic giant of the East Africa region.
Ethiopia’s economic growth since 2015 has been pegged at 10.8 percent, that its economic growth is hinged on spending on infrastructure and other areas of strong demand by locals.
Besides, the country has become a destination choice of several investors from different countries. The development registered so far has created economic inability that attribute to withstand the current drought crises.
Back to 2015/16 when the severe drought coerced the government to assist 10.2 million people in food demand. At that moment, regional states have played significant roles in supporting drought victims in their respective region.
For instance, the Oromiya Regional State has allocated 1.5 billion Birr to help drought victims. All regions have been doing the same. Regional states have been continuing assisting drought victims to the present time that indicates their economic capabilities.
Another undeniable fact is that, the Federal government has also managed to control the widespread of epidemics in the areas affected by drought. Unlike previous droughts incidents, the country has developed its health care system.
In fact, it is quite clear that the efforts exerted to strengthen smallholder farming has played a remarkable role in strengthening the bases of social protection and improve the livelihood of rural households.
That is why a large number of farmers have changed their lives. Incredibly, they have become millionaires due to the efforts made in improving their productivity, which vividly indicated the enabling power to help others within the farmers themselves.