Review of Disasters in Africa :

Professor . M. Khogali.

Disaster Management & Refugees Studies Institution , the International University of Africa.

1.    Introduction :

      Africa faces many disasters of different types and nature , but Africa is not the only continent that suffers from the impacts of disasters , many of which are common to other parts of the world . However , there are disasters that are specific to some continents and are not experienced in Africa , or if they are found they are restricted to certain areas or they are of low strength. That is because of differences in climate or in the geological structure , as well as in the different nature of the human activities . For example avalanches occur in the cold and high area of the mid and high latitudes and they are very rare in the high lands of Africa . Equally volcanoes which were common in Africa during the geological times are presently rare except in few areas such as the high lands of the Cameroon . Forest fires break out in any area of dense vegetation ,but they are more common to forest areas of the mid and high latitudes where trees are soft and catch fires easily .

1:2   Concept of Disaster :

Disaster are defined differently , but the common definition     includes the following points :

(a)             They are events due to natural or human causes , and in many cases the natural disasters are aggravated by the action of man . The negative impacts of disasters are often great and fall beyond the ability of the local or regional communities to mitigate them , and as such out side help is often sought.

(b)            Disasters could be rapid or slow in their occurrence .

(c)             An events , such as lighting could only be considered a disaster if it has negative impacts on man , and as such deserts have no disasters . Thus disasters are measured by their effects on man , animals , and vegetation .

1:3  The world awareness of the seriousness of disasters has increased because of the following factors :

(a) Increase in the number of disasters , especially disasters of human origin or disasters that are aggravated by man

      " action".   Examples are desertification and forest fires .

(b) Increase of human populations in areas that are prone to disasters , Turkey , Iran, India and Pakistan are examples .

(c)  Increase of large Towns :

      The annual report of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent ,2004 stated that between 1992 and 2000 , more than 7200 natural disasters occurred and they led to death's of more than  200,000 persons , while the material losses  , were more than 800 billion dollars . It may be expected  that the negative impacts increase in the futures as about half of the world population reside in about three percent of the world population areas , and that one in three cities in the developed world are exposed to natural disasters.

1.4 The most important disasters that are prone to occur in parts of Africa are as follows :

-         Drought .

-         Desertification .

-         Exceptionally  heavy rains .

-         Floods and torrents .

-         Earthquakes .

-         Hurricanes .

-         Industrial disasters .

-         Forest fires .

-         Human disasters.

-         Animal pests and diseases .

-         Plant pests and diseases .

-         Poverty .

-         Mal – nutrition and famines .

Each of these disasters would be dealt with separately .

2: Drought :

2:1  Africa is a continent divided almost equally by the equator . It          extends to about latitude 35 in the south and  to about latitude 38 in the  north . This gives Africa the following climate characteristics:- 

(a)             Tropical and semi – tropical climates ,

(b)            Except in the equatorial region , rainfall is seasonal and decreases as one moves away from the equator ,

(c)             Extensive areas are considered permanently dry in the sense that evaporation increases over the total average rainfall , and the areas that have annual rainfall  less than 400 mm are considered dry .

(d)            That all over Africa rainfall fluctuates from one year to another and even from one month to another during the rainy season .

(e)             That the fluctuation  in the rainfall is felt more severely in the drier parts where the rain is originally marginal and that a drop of 50 - 75 percent or more of the average annual rainfall is considered  drought disaster . Extensive areas such as in Senegal , Mali , Burkina Faso ,  Chad , Central Sudan , Zambia , Zimbabwe are subjected to frequent droughts . Other points about the rain are that the high heat makes the small amount less useful to grazing or cultivation . The same effect is noticed when the vegetation cover has been removed and the rains run away instead of being absorbed by the soil . It is also noticed that in some years that  at the start of the season rains may be good  and that encourages the farmers to start seeding and the plants grow , but then the rain stops and the plants wilt or die .

2.2   The factor that determines the amount of the rainfall and the

        degree of the fluctuation is the position of the Inter- Topical

convergence zone (the belt between the dry air from the desert and the humid air from the ocean , which in turn is affected by the distribution of the pressure systems ). 

2.3  A drought is considered a disaster because it means less water is available to crop production or grazing . Fore example

              Elobeid  Region in the Sudan has an annual average rain of about 380-400mm , but in 1984 it received only 96mm which was not sufficient for cultivation nor was it for grazing .

2.4 In the history of the Sahailian  countries famous disastrous  droughts occurred in 1913 , 1973 , 1982 – 84 , 2004 and as well as in other periods .

2.5  The drought maybe very biting  in the following cases :

       (a) When a number of drought years follow each other , and in that case the grain storage of the farmers would be depleted in the second year and famine may results , or people would be forced to move away to the camps of the displaced people .

       (b) When the fertility of the soil drops , crop production would decrease even if the rain is normal .

2.6  In addition to the negative impacts on the crop production the farmers may be forced to horizontally expand the cultivated areas to less fertile areas to compensate for the low amount of grains received due to drought . Alternatively the farmers may be forced to reduce the fallow period and cultivate the land without giving it a chance to regain its fertilely .

      (c) Wild life would be reduced either because the farmers kill them to obtain food or they migrate to other areas where they can find food and water .

     (d) The farmers , without food or money , resort to other activities that include cutting of trees to sell wood or to make charcoal , thus contributing to desertification .

     (e) Also many people would move to towns or to irrigated areas along the Nile. This contributes to further congestion of towns and separation of families .

     (g) Repeated drought reduces the level of water in the natural lakes such as lake Chad , or in the lakes behind dams . This in turn  would adversity  affect the areas under cultivation .

3:  Exceptionally Heavy Rainfall :

 3.1 In some years heavy rains , vastly more than the normal , fall  over extensive areas , in the semi - desert or even  in the desert. The problems may not be just the drop in the total amount , but excessive amount may fall in a short period of time and that would be beyond the ability of the soil to absorb it , and the results would include :-

         (a) houses built of such materials as clay or mud bricks           would either be  totally or partially destroyed . This was the case several times in rural Africa .

          (b)    railways and roads may be washed away,

          (c)    in areas where the slope is negligible , such as in the clay plain of eastern Sudan , the rain water may cover wide areas and stay there for some days , killing the newly grown crops . In that case and after the rains evaporate the farmers should reseed . It would not be a practicable solution to dig ditches to drain the water , as  that would be expensive , and the new channels would need bridges added  ,expenses .No part of Africa is immune from heavy rains , but the eastern coast of Africa , Madagascar and Mozambique  may suffer from repeated hurricanes which bring heavy rains .

4:  Floods and Torrents :

 4.1 A flood is a seasonable rise  in the level of water in the river channels  as a result of heavy rains . All the rivers in Africa , except the equatorial rivers where the rains are throughout the year experiences floods .

4.2  Floods could be categorized to three types :-

 (a) medium floods as a result of average rain .In that case the rain water would be confined to the river channels , and would not cause a disaster ,

(b) Low floods as results of low rainfall . this may result in a disaster for countries depending on irrigated agriculture as water in the river would not be sufficient for irrigation. Also low areas where the banks of the rivers are annually covered by water and be cultivated , would be dry . The history of Egypt tells of or many cases when that phenomena occurred . Also at the present , narrow stripes of the Nile  that depend for cultivation on whether or not the

   " gerifs "  are flooded suffer , the same case with river Senegal and other rivers ,

(c) High floods where water could not be confined in the channels or to the narrow low areas adjacent to the banks , but could also spread over extensive areas , and thus destroying buildings and other proprieties , and cover grown crops .

4:3  High floods are not restricted to big river , but may also happen in some wadies or small rivers. A case in point is river gash in eastern Sudan . It is a seasonal river originating from Eritrea  and carries large amount of silt which has already raised the river bed . The level of water of high flood is currently above the level of Kassala town . In 2003 a sudden high flood occurred and large stretches of the town was drowned causing huge losses in properties specially to houses and fruit gardens.

4.4 High level of water in the river channel is a natural and repeated phenomena , but flood disaster is man made . that is because :-

(a) man removes the vegetation cover from areas in the upper reaches of the water causes , and by doing so greet amount of water runs away instead being soaked into the soil ,

(b) man builds houses and other buildings in the lower areas that are prone to floods . Many rivers in U.SA , for example used to have high disastrous floods , but remedial measures were taken : the upper reaches were reforested , dams were built to regulate the flow , and man is no longer allowed to build houses in areas that are exposed to flooded .

      Floods are also famous in the rivers of China , India , Bangala Desh and many other countries . However , China started to construct huge dams to generate hydro electric power and to regulate the flow of water . It could be stated here that rural people in Western Sudan and along the western banks of the white Nile have the traditions of the building houses on the higher grounds , thus avoiding the possibility of floods.

4.5  Its possible to reduce the danger of floods by taking the necessary steps which include :

       (a) installing gauging stations at strategic points to measure the level of the water and the amount of the flow , and convey to the people in the lower reaches the possibility  of floods ,

       (b) neighbour countries from which rivers originate and cross the political boundaries should  co- operate and carry information of heavy  rains and the possibility of floods to the vulnerable population .

  (c) people should not be allowed to build houses in low areas  near the banks of the rivers ,

  (d) after the highly destructive disaster of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean at the end of 2003 ,people became aware of an underwater earthquake near the east coast of Africa . Thus international co- operation is needed to monitor and give early warning to the people along the shores. It could be stated here that the sea waves of the tsunami of 2003 took seven hours to reach Africa . If there was a system of early warning a lot of damage could have been avoided ,

  (e) a giant program of reforestation in the upper reaches of rivers such as the Blue Nile or the Niger would not only reduce the possibility of floods but would also protect the soils of the upper reaches from being washed down .

5:  Desertification :

5.1  desertification is not the same as desert .

A desert is permanently a dry land , has no or very scanty vegetation , no human population except where underground  or surface water  are found . On the other hand desertification means the occurrence of conditions similar to these in the desert . Further , decertified areas usually have some months of rain , Desertification is therefore due to human practices through the natural factors may play a role as well .

     Desertification is not a recent phenomena , it is old and is due to the irrational use of the agricultural and grazing resources and to the continued of wood cutting from wide areas . Desertification is therefore one of the important factor in the deterioration and the downfall of some civilizations and town in the Middle East , including the Sudan .

5.2 In the thirtieth of the last century professor Stebbing of Edinburgh university studied the desertification that occurred in West Africa and the Sudan , and published a number of articles and a book by the title " The encroachment of the desert in the Sudan and elsewhere in Africa , 1956 "

       Stebbing relying on historical evidence , stated that during the Eleventh Century A.D extensive areas extending as for as latitude 18n (now desert ) were populated and there were considerable economic activities .

       Stebbing findings , however were disputed by a number of scholars , thus shelving the question of desertification , but the question came to the glare with the drought of 1969-73 and the United Nations called for the UNEP conference in 1977  on desertification .

5.3  the question of desertification was always linked to drought , but while drought is a natural phenomena desertification is very much the result of human activities . When the land is continually over - cultivated without the use of natural or artificial fertilizer and without giving it a period of rest , it looses its fertility , its vegetation cover , and it becomes an easy victim to wind erosion .The same factor is observed in the grazing areas . Some scholars kept advocating that nomadism does not cause environmental problems because the livestock do not  graze in one area , but grazing is rotational . This idea proved to incorrect in a situation where the number of livestock keeps increasing all the time . In such a case an owner become keen to rush his animals to the areas of the new growth before giving the plant a chance to complete its cycle of growth and lay the seeds . In addition , to over cultivation and overstocking there is also the over - cutting of trees to obtain wood for domestic use and for building huts and houses . In most the African countries over 80 per cent of domestic energy is derived from wood .

5.4  In many African countries three types of desertification are            observed :-

(a)             the removal of the top soil . This is specially so in elevated areas where there is slope , and where the vegetation cover has been removed . This is clearly seen in the Red Sea Hills in the Sudan , but it is not very clear in Ethiopia as the volcanic soil is deep . The soils from these mountains continued to be removed for thousands of years ,

(b)            Sand encroachment . This is very widely spread in the Sahalian countries of West Africa , which are adjacent to the Sahara .It is a problem also to the internal delta of the Niger river as well as to the riveraine lands of north Sudan . The later region is actually a part of the desert from the climatic point of view ,  but the Nile provides water and good silty soil .The sand , in many parts buried the soil and rendered it useless for cultivation .  

(c)                         The last type is where the soils have lost their fertility leading to reduction in crop yields . It is observed that with the loss of fertility the crop yields , continued to be low even when the rainfall returns to normal

5.5   The outcome of desertification is similar to those of the drought  :

   (a)  displacement of population on large scales with separation of the family members and poverty as the crop yields are reduced and as the nomads  loose their livestock through selling at very reduced prices , or through death as a result of poor or no grazing .

  6 :  Earthquakes : -

6.1   volcanoes are not common in Africa during the present

    era.  Earthquakes do occur in many parts of Africa , but

 Except in Morocco and Algeria , the earthquakes in most parts of Africa  are weak and do not , so far cause great damages .

 Two earthquakes occurred in Egypt  between 1990 – 2005            , and one in Khartoum in 1993 . In all cases the forces , be it in                                            Egypt or Sudan was less than 5 on Richard scale .

6.2  Yet no one grantees that serious earthquakes would not occur in the Africa in the futures . Africa should keep an open eye to its eastern coast as the Indian Ocean has experienced two underwater earthquakes in 2003 . Should an earthquake takes place in the India Ocean near the eastern coast the damage might be serious . Further , recent studies showed that there is a center for earthquakes in the area of the White Nile near Khartoum . If a strong earthquake occurs during the flood time of that river great damage to Khartoum would results .

7: landslides :

7.1 These are usually associated the earthquakes and high areas . A number of small landslides took place in the area of Jebel Mara  in the Sudan , and these were linked with the earthquakes that took place in that area .

8: Hurricanes :

8.1 Africa is not famous for violent hurricanes as these are associated with huge water bodies in eastern coast of continents between the equator and latitudes 30-35 .  So only the eastern part of Africa that many suffer hurricanes . But all the dry lands of Africa are famous for the dust storms which usually cause some discomfort but no great damage .

9: Forest Fires :

 9.1 Fires could breakout in all areas where there is dry vegetation covers . They are usually severe in the forests of the mid and high latitudes where there are dry leaves and broken branches on the surface of the land and the trees are of soft wood .

9.2   Dense forest are rare in Africa except in the equatorial  and semi equatorial region . Most of Africa is savanna or desert lands, where trees are not dense and are made up of hard wood . But in the savanna parts the space between the trees is covered by grasses which turn dry during the dry season . It is here that fires breakout after the rainy season .

9.3  In the past the colonial authorities used to order the tribal people to open fires lines . This tradition was neglected when the African countries became independent . That was mainly because the people were not paid for their work . The results  of the fires could be the burning of about 30 percent of the grazing potentials.

10. Conflicts and Internal Wars

10.1 Conflict and  wars are the work of the humans , and as such they are very old.

10.2. The people of the Africa are composed of large numbers of tribes of different origins and cultures .In the past and as a result of the absence of strong governments many of those kept their tribal  identities. Further , the political and administrative boundaries did not develop in natural ways and were the creation of the conflicting  powers. As a result conflicts between the tribes kept flaring up from time to time. But during the foreign rule peace  and order were forced on the people to a large extent.

10.3. With independence , however, conflicts and local wars began to break out. The cause for these were many and included conflicts on the use of the resources between the settlers and the nomads , as well as because of the unacceptance of the rule of certain factions over the others . Thus in 1954, when it become clear that the Sudan gained its independence a mutiny of the southern troops broke out . That  lasted till 1973. Again it flared up in 1983, And continued till 2005. In Nigeria  , after 4 years from independence the Southern Eastern part revolted and  formed the short lived state of  Byafara. Local wars in Africa are many and it seems that they will continue for some times. There are wars in Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea ….. and others.

10.4. No solutions for wars seems to be in sight  , but these wars cause the death of many people , (civilians and military) . Further , wars deplete the financial resources and retard economic development.

11.  Thus stopping the local wars should be one of the challenges to the African Union , and it is high time for the African people to understand that the various problems can not be solved by wars, as in wars no part of the fighting factions would be a total winner. Africans should learn from the countries of Western Europe who fought among them-selves two world wars and in the end they started , since 1956 , when the iron and steal community was formed ,to establish bodies for co-operation  till in  2004 ,  when they reached the stage of  forming the European Union , at first for the countries of the western part of the Continent  but at the present included most of the eastern parts as well , over 50 member states.

12: Human Diseases:

12.1 Africa gained the reputation of being a continent of many diseases, and that thought to have been one of the important reasons why its interior discovery was delayed. Despite the fact that there has been important improvements in the preventive and curative medicine, diseases are still widely spread, and new diseases such as aids appeared .

12.2. Among the famous diseases in Africa are :-

a.     Malaria.

b.     Tuberculosis.

c.     Typhoid.

d.     Dysentery.

e.     River blindness.

f.       Hepatitis, and.

g.     HIV (Aids).

12.3. Because of the limited time and space only three of those diseases are discussed there. The selection is mainly because of the availability of the data.

12.4. Malaria:

This is a dangerous disease and it is very widely spread in all the countries of  Africa, and it is thought to be  the number one killer in the Continent, despite the fact that it could be cured it discovered in good time . Nevertheless , It stays in the blood and will flare up if the infected person becomes very weak for one reason or another.

12.5. The data usually revealed by the government or by WHO does not show the whole truth. That is because many people when attacked by any fever they think that it is malaria and they go straight to commercial pharmacies and buy anti- malaria drugs. So the number of such diseased persons does not appear in the statistics.

12.6 Malaria is transmitted by the mosquito type Anopheles gambia. Such mosquitoes spread in hot climate where fresh water is stagnant. In the past the season for malaria was usually the rainy season. However, this is no longer the case. The misuse of fresh water in the growing urban centers  , the digging of irrigation canals became added factors in the spread of malaria throughout the year in many African countries. The effective combating of malaria is through the draining of stagnant water.

12.7. Malaria does not differentiate between individuals or communities. While the wealthy families combat mosquitoes by chemical spraying (costly operation), they can not drain the stagnant water in the canals and ponds in the open spaces and streets. In addition the mosquitoes fly and visit all sectors of the community. The most affected people by malaria are usually the old people, children and the aid carriers. It is among these people the death from malaria is more common. It is therefore the duty of the individuals, the regional and the central governments  as well as the international concerned bodies to try to eradicate  malaria.

13. lung  Tuberculosis:

The virus of this disease is found in the air all over the world, but the most vulnerable persons are:-

a.     The underfed and the malnutritioned persons.   

b.     Weak persons.

c.     Those persons living in crowed lodgings and working places where the ventilation is weak , and in camps of the displaced people .

13.2. The T.B. situation in Africa has deteriorated rapidly. At has been reported recently in the Sudanese papers (31/7/2005.) that about 40,000 Sudanese annually get the disease and more are excepted to suffer. The papers quoting the WHO director said that the T.B. in the year 1995 killed 17 million persons all over the world and that the T.B. cases in the Africa has tripled, and that 22 countries in the Continent are seriously affected by the disease. However , presently the diseased persons could be cured if the disease is discovered in good time.

14. H.I.V. (AIDS):

 Table( I) , Countries With 5 Percent of The Population in The Age Group 15-49 Carry Who The Virus Aids.

  Reference : UNDP , Human Development Report , 2002 .

14.1. The disease has been discovered in 1983, and it is  transmitted from one person to another by ways of:-

a.     Sexual contact between the virus carriers, being of the opposite sexes or between gays

b.     Through transmission of diseased blood , even if is the quantity is very minute.

   14.2  The disease spreads among all sections of a society that  practice multi sexual contacts. Among the disease carriers are children born  to mothers that carry the disease during  pregnancy. It is also regretted that some medical persons might get the virus during taking blood samples or during surgical operations.

14.3. Aid is a very dangerous disease as it can not be cured though it can be treated in the some way as diabetes and usually the result is death .The death is not because of the virus it self but it makes the infected person very weak to the point that the body would not be able to resist any disease. The disease also reduces the  vitality of the infected persons to the point of putting them out of productive work . It has been  reported that in Burkina Faso about 20 percent of the working population are disease carriers , and many of them are already out of work. The disease also had the caused the death of about 75 percent of the police force in Kenya.

14.4. As the African countries do not  have the financial nor do they have the scientific resources to carry researches in the field of  combating   aid , they rely on work done in the Western countries, and as it could be seen from table1 that almost all the African countries suffer from aids by one way or another. Also the table shows the African countries where the rate of infection is over 5 percent . By comparison the number of the total aid persons in African is about 15,000,000 or about 9 percent of the total, while in the world the number is 18,500,000 persons or about 1,2 percent of the total population. It could be seen from table that the rates of infection in some countries are alarmingly high , more than 30 percent among the age  group 15-49. The rate of women diseased  in that age group is also high . If such women become pregnants they would give birth to diseased children. In addition the already living children and carrying the disease are bound to die before  reaching  maturity . Further , many of aid carriers have vicious tendencies , and would like to see as many persons carrying the disease as they did so themselves.

14.7. This leads one to think that the population situation in Africa is rather gloomy because:-

a.      The rate of mortality had already increased in countries where the rate of aid is high while the mortality in most of the world is declining. In fact the death rates in at least three Africa countries have already increased between 1989-1990, (table2).

 Table 2 the Mortality Rates in Three African Countries in 1989- 1990, 

b.      The fertility rates will decline, as many of the disease carriers would tend to control their births lest the children born will be aid carriers as well. It addition, the increase of the death rate among children, potential parents , is bound to have its impact on fertility

c.     Because of what is happening in the realm of mortality and fertility the population natural increase rates would drop.

d.     Also the rate of economic development already low, would decline further.

14.8 . Aids in Africa is a real disaster and price of drugs per one person per year is extremely high by the African standard of per captor income    It is therefore important to put together all possible efforts of the states and world organizations to combat  the disease. If the question of aid is raised, many persons would think of the solution in terms of finding anti - aid drugs : Rarely we hear of people discussing the core of the problem: resorting to religious values , abstaining  from multi- illegal sexual contacts.

15: Animal Pests and Diseases 

   15.1. Africa possesses large animal wealth from which the needs of meat and milk are met. Animal export from one region to another in the some country .e.g. from northern to southern Nigeria or to other countries is also observed.

15.2. Animals in Africa are raised under different systems: nomadic, semi nomadic and settled conditions . Also the animals are of different types and  breeds : There are camels, cattle sheep, and goats.

Pigs are also raised in the non- Islamic regions . Climate has a great role in the selections of the animal type to be raised.

15.3. As Africa as reputed  for human diseases it is also famous for the animal pests and disease. The high heat and humidity favour  the breeding of pests and diseases. Also soils, dry or wet have a part in the spread of there diseases. When the soil becomes muddy it favours the breeding and spread of the cattle biting flies. This is one reason for the nomadic movements from clayey to sandi soils as the case is in the Sudan, or to higher ground as the case is in Nigeria.

15.4. Since the first quarter of the twentieth century same efforts were made to combat animal diseases. For example in 1927 a veterinary laboratory was established in the Sudan to study animal diseases and produce vaccines and drugs. However, despite the important progress made in that field , animal diseases and insects continue to kill large number of livestock or hinder export to outside countries as such countries do not accept diseased animals or meat.

15.5. In this section it would not be possible to tackle all the livestock diseases and pests ; enough to discuss two of these:

a.     The sleeping sickness (trypanosome) and a Rinderpest

b.           The sleeping sickness  is transmitted by the tsetse flies (trypanosome). Other flies may also transmit the disease, but they are not important. The disease attacks both animals and man. In the case of man the disease is called nagana . The fly is found in very extensive areas, about 10 million Km2 from the equator to latitudes 14…n and south. The best conditions for the fly is the savannah environment where the fly find shelter in bushes and under the shade; and in areas where the annual rainfall is between 750- to 1500 mm. But the fly likes sparsely populated regions But when it find the chance to spread, the people evacute the region . The presence of the fly in a region makes it unsuitable for cattle and for many other big animals , raised or wild , except the zebra and poultry.

     15.6.      There are two possible ways to combat the fly:

a.      To desert  the areas where the flies are found, or

b.     to chemically spray the infected areas.

But both methods are harmful to the matural  environment .

(b) Rinderpest it is also called the plaque of the livestock. The disease was known  in Europe till the middle of the Nineteenth Century while it was unknown in Africa at that time. It disappeared from Europe as a result of co-operation between the countries of the Continent. The movement of the livestock across the political frontiers was very much restricted and the infected animals were slaughtered.

        15.7  The disease came to Africa at the end of the Nineteenth Century when the Italians invaded Eritrea. Soon the disease  was transmitted to the livestock in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia  and Angola , and then to West Africa. But it was noticed  at that time that the killing of antelopes resulted in a reduction of the disease. After the foundation of the Organization of the Africa Unity, some countries, with the support of the Organization developed a scheme to combat the disease and that showed some  success.  But later there was relaxation and the disease once more spread in  many of the countries of the Continent except where rigid control was made. The suggestion here is that among the first tasks of the African Union is once more to support and lead co- operation  between the countries to combat the disease.

   16. Plant Disease and Pests.

These are many as the heat and humidity play important roles in their spread. These Spread of diseases and the insects could be attributed to natural causes as well as to human activities. Two of these diseases and pests are tackled here: Desert locust and be Buda (striga).

 16.1. Desert locust 

It  is an insect  that feeds on the green leaves of plants crops, trees, bushes and grasses , and has great ability to fly for long distances from Senegal to Pakistan and Afganistan ; from North Africa to Central and Southern Africa.  The speed may be 30 km per day. It has two seasons for breeding: the spring- in the desert of north Africa and the dry winter in the savannah region. The insect  rests to lay eggs during period of scarcity of food . As the soil gets some humidity the eggs hatch and the insect start to develop from larva to full grown insect. There are fife stages for that development. Then the insects fly in huge- swarms, may be 30 km in length. The flying swarm consume large amount of green leaves. One insect consumes about 1.5 grams in a day. Thus, a small swarm covering  an area of one km2 could destroy about 100 tons of grains or vegetation a day. Even the young larva consume large amout of food as it  has been estimated that one swarm could consume about equal the feed of thousands of human beings. Thus the invation of locust is looked upon as a real  disaster because it may cause severe shortage of food or even a famine. In the Twentieths of last Century swarms of locust used to cover wide areas in Africa. During the Second World War. and to avoid possible food shortages, an international organization for combating the locust was founded and a number of treaties between the countries north of the equate were signed. The methods of combating was to spray wide areas by insecticides during the first stages of the development of the insect, but before the insect could fly. If it flies, combating would be different and may cause environmental problems . Thus combating locust is difficult because:

a. Chemical spraying is considered harmful to the physical and   human environment.

b. Numerous political conflicts between regions in the same  country or conflict  between countries makes the movements of  field workers difficult.

c. In some regions people use locust as food. If the people, with-

 out knowing , eat the sprayed locust they would suffer.

 16.2  In the early Eightieth  of the last Century and at the time of the great African drought the movements of locust was few, but as rains resumed falling in 1985 the locust became active once more. Thus the world public opinion was not ready to accept shortage of food caused by locust , and as a result FAO took the responsibly to co-ordinate combating the insect again.

 16.3. The phenomena of locust was old. The invasion of locust was mentioned in the Quran as one of the punishments to the disbelievers pharaoh of Egypt. It is also a natural disaster and man is not responsible for its occurrence , but man can combat it. That would not be the work of one region or one country. It needs the co-operation of all countries where the breeding takes place . Thus , co-operation should be a joint venture from both FAO and the African Union .

 16.4. Buda (striga) : It is a semi parasitic plant with rudimentary roots that grow with the growth of some plant crops especially dura (sorghum). In that way the buda would share with the plant its food and cause a reduction of about 30 percent of the normal crop production. Despite the fact that the buda is a natural plant its negative impacts are maximized by the action  of man. That is because man cultivates the same type of crop in the some field season after season and without  a fallow system and without crop rotation. In regions such as the Gezira of the Sudan the effect of buda is negligible as crop rotation is practiced

16.5. Inspite of the negative effected of the buda , it is considered a good animal fodder; but the farm owners do not allow animals to graze the crop residuals after harvesting . This is because the undigested buda seeds would come out with the animal dung and thus would increase the spread of the parasite.

It would be difficult to fight buda  except by following crop relation  and fallow systems. However, if this system of  fighting is accepted and animals are allowed to the fields, that would give the soil good natural manure and crop production would increase.

17. Cotton Disease and Pests:

17.1. Cotton is among the plants that are most affected by diseases and insects. The problems is very much maximized when cotton is cultivated in extensive areas each year. The Gezira scheme for example, where about 400,000 acres are annually under cotton is much affected by the various cotton diseases such as the black arm, wilt and leave curl and others. Among the usual methods of fighting are:

a.     Chemical spraying ,

b.      breading of  resisting types of cotton

c.     annually pulling  out the cotton stalks and burn  them.

d.     follow a system of crop rotation.  However spraying is a costly process and it has serious impacts in the environmental.

17.2. Coco Trees:

The coco plant was introduced to West Africa in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Its cultivation spread rapidly . In Ghana the total area under culhvation in the thirties of the last century reached about 7,5 million acres. Thus the coco trees occupied about 50 percent of Ghana's farm land. But by that time the trees started to be infected with swollen shoot disease. There was no remedy except to  destroy the infected trees.

18. Disasters  of Industries.

  Industries could be sources of serious disasters. A glaring example was what had happened in India when poisonous gases leaked from a plant belonging to the Union Carboride and killed over 2000 persons . Acid rains could also be produced when poisonous gases mix with rain water . This is not a problem for local areas , that is because the winds carry the gases to far distant areas . for example gases produced in U.SA can be carried to areas  as far as Northern Canada and Norway. Growth of modern industries in Africa is still in its infancy stage . Further , great industrial countries from where gases are omitted are far away . Even so some industrial disasters did occur in some countries . For example in 2004 fire broke out in the thermal electric plant in Buri , Khartoum . Also there is a lot of criticism to the iron and steel factory at Halwan industrial suburb in Cairo , Egypt . Minute particles of the metal in the air affect the workers inside the plants and also the people living in the villages .

Criticism is also directed to cement and tanning factories in many countries .There are many suggestions for mitigating the risk of the industrial  incidents :

(a)             Feasibility of development projects should include environmental components . Usually the owners of such projects do not like to include any environment reference in their project suggestions. This is because it costs them money . This should be enforced by law , otherwise the health and social costs  would be great

(b)            The question of environmental should go to beyond polluting air , water or soil . It should also include what to do with industrial wastes even if they not poisonous. In addition it should include how far some of the wastes  could  be recycled.

(c)             Many of the Western industrial companies seize the opportunity of the eagerness of the African to develop their industries , and establish factories that pay lip  services to the environment . This was what had happened in India . The Indian plant used rather crude technologies to care for the environmental while the prototype plant in USA was using very modern technologies to save guard  the environment . Thus it should be stressed here that the African countries should be very cautious when industries are being developed and when Western companies are involved.

19: Poverty :

19:1 poverty is the most  serious disaster in Africa. It is very widely spread , and it is the base for many other disasters in the Continent . It was reported in the Stockholm Conference in 1972 that poverty is the most pollutant  for the environment.

19:2 The first criteria for measuring poverty is the annual average per capital income. But since there are wide discrepancies between the annual income of the different groups: between the low , the average and the high , the per capital income is not a good measure . it is also thought that the per capita income in some African countries has recently declined . This is because while the production of goods and services has remained static or with little increase, the natural increase the population was comparatively very higher . Thus many authorities, including the United Nations Agencies started to use the number of dollars earned daily per person. Where the income per person is less than one dollar per day, the country would be classified as poor , table(3) . It is also notices that many Africans don't reveal information about their per capita income ,  but it is generally a agreed  that most of the African countries are classified as poor or very poor .

Table No(3) The Percentage of Population in Each Country that Earn less than  one Dollar a Day and that Who Earn Two Dollar a Day .

1

 Reference : Human Development Report , 2002 . P 159.                  

19:3 The factors contributing to poverty are many and are interwoven , but the most important one is the low productively per person in agriculture as well as in industries . Agriculture is mostly traditional : holdings are small and the inputs are poor ,chemical fertilizers are rarely used , manure is used only in some countries  , and the farmers seldom use improved seeds .

The farmers  knowledge about modern agriculture (as well as about industries) is meager . Employment , both , apparent and disguised is great and the industry and the services sectors have  little opportunities for employment . While the number of these who annually enter the labors market is large, the openings are small . So many of those who enter the labour market have no chance except to work with relatives in agriculture , or remain ideal , or take petty jobs in urban areas. In addition , repeated years of drought and desertification reduced production , and many people have drifted away towards urban centers without having any professional experiences.  Other factors include:

(a)                In some years when rains are heavy production (supply) may surpass  the demand . In that case prices fall down to points beyond the cost of production .

(b)                Despite the great expansion in education many of the graduates are not professionally qualified .

(c)                 The administrative experience is very limited .

  The situation  is very bad in the realm of the lower and                                    the  middle caders ,

(d)                Workers in many countries take their jobs lightly and with great looselessness. 

(e)                Many industrial plants stopped production because of scarcity of raw and of foreign currency to buy spare parts or to buy raw materials .

(f)                 The supply of power is irregular .

19:4   To reduce poverty the following steps are suggested :

(a)                To up grade the administrative machinery in services

and industry .

(b)                To have proper education and training .

(c)                To up grade the educational standard of the farmers.

(d)                To stop the unnecessary and showy spending by the governments and by individuals. Political parties spend large amount of  money every year just to gain political support .

 20: Hunger, Famine and Malnutrition :

 20:1  There are two aspects of shortage of food .

(a)                Insufficiency of food to the extend of retarding the body growth and the good health , either physical or psychological.  This is called hunger , but if the shortage is severe to the extend of causing death it is famine .

(b)                If the food is not balanced between starches , protein  fats and vitamins it is called malnutrition. The person would live  but his health would not be in the best conditions. However all depends on how far the food is not balanced.

 2o.2. It is noticed that both hunger and malnutrition are highly presented in Africa , especially in rural areas .  

           This is attribute to :

(a)                Agriculture is seasonal and the people may have enough food after harvesting the crops but usually by the ends of the season food would be scarce . in the past , when  all the lands were put under subsistence crops , the people used to store enough quantities of food to take them all the year through and to use this stored food in case the production of the next year  would not be good . At the present however , and because the people need cash to by such items as tea , sugar and clothes , they divided the land between subsistence and cash crops and would not have food to store for the following months or years. So as the dry season advances the shortage of food would be felt . To solve the problem the people reduce the number of meals from three to two  or even to one per day .

 Reference:  Human Development Report 2002.  

(b)    people are poor and don't have the money to buy food .

20:4 the malnutrition is usually due to the fact that most of                                                     the crops are strach crops such as dura (sorghum) , maize , or roots crops ; vegetables  and fruits are not grown in large quantities . Further , in areas devoted mainly to crop production animals are not raised in large numbers . Thus , the consumptions of milk is in small quantities (if it is found). Meat is also not eaten in sufficient quantities even in  the nomadic areas.

20. Sometimes it is claimed that hunger and malnutrition are caused by the repeated droughts and desertification . But if this explanation is accepted for countries such as Somalia and Djibouti, it should not be accepted for countries such a , Sudan where irrigation is practiced in extensive areas and the country boasts of being the feeder for the world , nor would it be accepted for countries such as the Congo , rich  in terms of agricultural potentials and in terms of minerals . How can one comprehend that about 32 percent of the people of the Congo suffer from hunger ? It is thought that the situation of malnutrition and shortage of food would continue , and its seems that there is no hope for improvement in the near future as is suggested by Table No(3).

          Note : In 31 July when the writing of this paper was about to be finished the B.B.C reported that the Niger as well as a number of the sahalian countries were suffering from severe condition of famine !