story and pictures by Jayashree Nandi
Bamako, Mali: 45-year-old Sali Samake is the most important person in the small Malian village, Tamale near the capital city of Bamako. Since she is the only person in the village who can use a Pluviometer, a rain-measuring instrument, the villagers look to her to plan their harvest.
Mali, one of the poorest African nations is now one of the worst hit by climate change. Desertification in some parts of Mali is intensifying every year leaving farmers completely defenseless to the crisis. Most parts of West Africa including Mali have seen a sharp decrease in rainfall since 1970 and consecutive years of droughts till date. There has been 20% decrease in annual rainfall and the level of water in the rivers has decreased by 40 to 60%. The interior delta of river Niger has almost halved with 37000 sqkms in 1950 to 15000 sqkms now.
According to studies by the ministry of environment, Mali the temperature of the water in the water bodies has also increased which has led to an increase in invading plant species on the water. Fishing, navigation and irrigation have become tough. The scanty, still water is the breeding home to malaria mosquitoes and since then the country has seen an increase in the incidence of meningitis.Even while disease and acute water crisis surrounds the lives, the traditional communities exude the vibrant spirit of life. Young girls come rushing towards tourist vehicles to sell a native delicacy of sesame and honey sticks, women sell fresh bananas and fruits.
But farmers are clueless about the rains now. The rainy season comes and goes at its own will. “Now farmers don’t know when they have to plant. The rainy season is shorter. This has had a huge impact on our agro economy leading to migration of the young population. Families are sending their people abroad to other parts of Africa, Europe and America to earn an income for the family,” says Secretaire Technique Permanent, Boubacar Sidibi Dembele.Mali is taking baby steps to adapt to climate change, they are offering manual kits for training to farmers, the meteorological department is working closely with farmers to provide them better forecasts and exchange information. The cloud-seeding programme has been in use since 2006. This year already 1000 cloud seeding operations have taken place, especially in the Northern villages like the Kai, Kolokani and Sahelian regions. The cloud seeding timetables are announced regularly on national television. 25 literate people have been nominated from different villages who can use the pluviometer and provide information to other farmers in the village about rain water availability. “the first advantage from the pluviometer is that we know exactly how many mm of rain we get in the village and we can estimate production accordingly. The head of the village consults me and plans the harvest with other villagers,” says Sali.
River Bani that flows to San, a small province in Mali used to flood. Today it is mostly dry apart from low-level water during the rains. The San region used to be directly irrigated by river Bani but now new irrigation projects have been started to bring water through canals. The level of river has gone down by two metres. Mali’s Shea trees, which generate a majority of the income for women who make Shea butter for skin care products, are disappearing gradually. In regions like Mopti and Timbouktu there is hardly any water. The West African desert elephant is highly impacted due to the frequent droughts. Banzena in the Gourma region not only for the elephants but for the localherdsmen because it carries water throughout the year and can be depended on as a place to find water even after other lakes and water points have dried up. May this year, the lake was down to about 30 cms of muddy, bacteria filled slush and cattle, humans and elephants were competing to draw some water from that. Dead bodies of emaciated desert elephants were found covered in slush.
Even while Mali could be one of the firs casualties of climate change, justice is still far away a say Malian activists. They stare wide eyed at the forthcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen (COP 15) for developed nations to accept targets and share real technology which is now locked by intellectual property rights(IPR) and patents of big companies.
