SUSTAINABILITY - The African Mirror

Oct

21

2020

Swelled by rain and COVID curbs, locust swarms ravage Ethiopia

SUSTAINABILITY

TIKSA NEGERI WIDOW-OF-TEN Marima Wadisha screamed, threw rocks and in her desperation even fired bullets at the locusts that descended on her sorghum fields in northeast Ethiopia. But the insect swarms were so relentless that her entire crop - her family's only source of income - was destroyed. "They never left for a week. We are left with an empty harvest, we tie our waist and cry day and night. How can (I) feed ... my children like this," she said, surrounded by five of them as she held a bundle of damaged sorghum. The locust invasion is Ethiopia's worst…

Nov

24

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenyan villagers nurture local springs as founts of clean water

SUSTAINABILITY

WESLEY LANGAT MONICA Kirui, 30, a mother of five from Kipsegon, remembers queueing for hours as she waited to fetch water from the local springs, the only source of fresh drinking water in her village in the southern part of Kenya's Rift Valley. One of the few springs in the area that has water year round, Kipsegon attracts people from all over. In the past, some would wait overnight to get their water, often contaminated by so many people dipping containers into the springs, Kirui said. But that has not been a problem since April, when a concrete barrier was built…

Nov

22

2020

By The African Mirror

How to green Africa from the grassroots

SUSTAINABILITY

CAMILLA TOULMIN GLOBAL lessons can be learned from Africa’s villages. Each one is different and yet, large or small, they represent a microcosm of the forces at work across the continent. They show a capacity to mix traditional with new forms of knowledge, to take advantage of innovations which make sense for them. And people show a tenacious ability to adapt and prosper in the face of land shortages, urban migration and climate impacts. People get on with daily survival despite shortcomings in support, whether from national or international levels. At a time when COVID-19 has now joined climate change…

Nov

20

2020

By The African Mirror

Africa shrugs off net-zero emissions push without finance to follow

SUSTAINABILITY

LAURIE GOERING AS more countries, cities, investors and businesses set net-zero emissions goals, they now cover about half of the world's economy - but Africa is largely left out of the picture so far. Of its 54 countries, only South Africa has set a net-zero aim - and failure to revamp policies to benefit from a global low-carbon shift may mean Africa misses out on investment, said Wendy Hughes, a carbon markets manager at the World Bank Group. But officials from the continent noted that with sub-Saharan Africa currently producing less than 4% of global emissions, "carbon-cutting" goals have limited…

Nov

16

2020

By The African Mirror

As Cape Town races to save water, risk of ‘Day Zero’ drought seen rising

SUSTAINABILITY

KIM HARRISBERG CAPE TOWN faces an 80% higher chance of another 'Day Zero' drought by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions keep rising at current rates, research showed on Monday, as the South African city races to safeguard water supplies. Following a 2018 drought in South Africa that nearly caused Cape Town's taps to run dry, known as Day Zero, officials have been working to avert further water crises that could put lives at risk and destroy livelihoods in the coming years. Using new high-resolution simulations, researchers from Stanford University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration…

Oct

29

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Potholes’ from the past help drought-hit Zimbabwean farmers save water

SUSTAINABILITY

LUNGELO NDHLOVU FOR 18 years, Thokozile Ncube has been planting her crops in manure-filled holes covered with straw - and every year, she grows enough to feed her family, as other farmers in Zimbabwe's drought-prone Matobo district watch their crops shrivel. The traditional planting method helps crops survive droughts by keeping them hydrated for longer than tilling and watering an entire field, said the mother of eight from Gwangazile village, 40 km (25 miles) south of Bulawayo. "Whenever the rain comes, that's when you do the planting and your crops will remain green, even during a dry spell, until the…

Oct

27

2020

By The African Mirror

Small efforts can protect farmers from pesticides. Insights from Zambia

SUSTAINABILITY

JOSEPH GOEB, Research Associate, Michigan State University VEGETABLE production, tomato production in particular, is an important source of income for many smallholder farmers in Zambia. It can provide them with gross margins that are much higher than maize, the dominant field crop. But these higher returns come with nearly ubiquitous crop loss risks from pests. Two commonly reported pests are bollworms and nematodes. These can dramatically reduce the amount of tomatoes that meet quality standards. To address this, farmers in Zambia are starting to use more pesticides. A trend that can be seen in many African countries, such as Ethiopia…

Oct

26

2020

By The African Mirror

How fracking plans could affect shared water resources in southern Africa

SUSTAINABILITY

SURINA ESTERHUYSE, Lecturer Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State RECENTLY, news reports revealed plans by a Canadian oil and gas company, ReconAfrica, to explore for oil and gas in some of Africa’s most sensitive protected areas. These areas include the Namibian headwaters of the Okavango delta and a world heritage site, Tsodilo Hills, in Botswana. Plans are afoot to explore inside the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier conservation area. Both conventional and unconventional oil and gas are the targets. Conventional oil and gas occur in porous geological formations. Unconventional oil and gas occur in impermeable geological formations and need specialised…

Oct

24

2020

By The African Mirror

More than 7,000 dead seals found along Namibian beach – conservation group

SUSTAINABILITY

THE number of dead seals found washed ashore on the coast of Namibia has risen to more than 7,000, according to non-profit group Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN). OCN said last week thousands of dead seal pups had washed ashore at Pelican Point peninsula, a tourist destination known for its colony of seals and school of dolphins. Naude Dreyer, a marine biologist at OCN, said investigations in the past week had revealed a spike in the number of dead female adults. "What we have been observing is less freshly dead seal pups and a lot of dead female adults," he said…

Nov

30

2020

By The African Mirror

Extreme heat is a threat to lives in Africa, but it’s not being monitored

SUSTAINABILITY

EXTREME heat is a serious hazard to people’s health. It affects the cardiovascular system and is particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions. LUKE HARRINGTON, Postdoctoral researcher in Climate Extremes, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford FRIEDERIKE OTTO, Associate Director, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford Recent research has found that since the 1950s, extreme heat has become more frequent and severe, and lasted longer, in nearly all regions of the world. The biggest increases have been seen in the Middle East, South America and parts of Africa. Because societies in different parts of the world…