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Uganda listed among countries facing environmental migration crisis (2) |
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17:08, July 09, 2007 |
The study predicted more frequent and severe droughts, less rainfall but more storms, landslides and floods, lower water tables and drying up boreholes, a reduction of coffee and cassava growing areas, as well as the spread of malaria and other infectious diseases for humans and crops.
The current problems of the pastoralists in the eastern and western part of the East African country are seen by some as examples of environmental refugees.
In eastern Uganda, pastoralists move from place to place in search of water and pasture, in the end, they raid cattle from neighboring communities and kill people. This has forced hundreds of people to flee their homes.
In the western part, a row between pastoralists and cultivators turned bloody on Saturday over where to graze cattle.
"This could be a result of population pressure; people are scrambling for the scarce resources. Climate change further complicates the situation," said Paul Isabirye, an expert in the country''s Meteorology Department.
"As elsewhere in Africa, the population continues to grow as the environment deteriorates, exerting more pressure on a land that grows ever drier."
Climate experts in April issued the bleakest UN warning so far about the impacts of global warming, ranging from failing crops and hunger in Africa to species extinctions and rising sea levels worldwide.
[1] [2] [3]
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