Farmers Review Africa May/June 2017 Farmers Review Africa | Page 14
Country Focus
Chad is the country most vulnerable to
climate change
Of the 186 countries assessed in a recent survey bigger than many Westerners may realise. At get increasingly hot and arid throughout the
of climate vulnerability, Chad was rated most 1.28m km² it's larger than Nigeria and twice 21st century, which means lower crop yields,
in peril. A combination of high poverty, the size of Texas. Around 90% of its 10m worse pasture, and a harder life for anyone
dependent on Lake Chad.
frequent con icts, and the risk of both people live in the southern half of the country,
droughts and oods means the central African as most of the northern half extends well into
nation is bottom of the list, just below the Sahara desert.
Rural areas are most at risk from climate change
Bangladesh and some way behind Norway, the
because that's where most of the population,
country least vulnerable to climate change. Most Chadians base their livelihoods on and most of the poverty, is found. However,
So why Chad? For a start, it is one of the subsistence farming and livestock rearing. e urban areas are not safe either, as the country's
poorest countries in the world. Around 87% of semi-arid rangelands of the Sahel, in the north growing cities struggle to accommodate the
Chadians are classi ed as poor, according to of the country, provide pasture for livestock arrival of new residents. Sanitation services like
the Multidimentional Poverty Index, which during the rainy season, while the fertile sewage, storm water drainage and waste
factors in health, education and living agricultural elds in the south produce most of collection are poor, according to the World
standards. at's the fourth highest rate in the the cash and food crops. When the dry season Bank. In the event of oods, as happened in
world. e percentage who are “destitute” begins, pastoralists move their herds south to 2010, 2011 and 2012, the infrastructure cannot
(63%), the most extreme category of poverty, is feed on the leovers of the agricultural cope and untreated sewage could infect the
also the fourth highest in the world. harvest.
water supply, creating a high risk of infectious
diseases such as cholera.
is is exacerbated by the fact that the country Chad's changing climate has been in civil war or con ict for 35 out of Since the mid-20th century, temperatures in the 57 years since it gained independence from Chad have been increasing while rainfall is Demographic challenges
France. decreasing. Ninety percent of the country's Chad's population is mostly young, and high
largest lake, Lake Chad, has disappeared over youth unemployment has already caused unrest
Any poor or con ict-prone country will always the past 50 years due to a combination of in the capital N'djamena. Vulnerability to
be vulnerable, but Chad's geography means droughts and increasing withdrawals for climate is made worse by civil unrest or con ict
climate change is a particular risk. Chad is irrigation. Climate studies project things will because people cannot receive the help they
May - June 2017
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REVIEW AFRICA
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