Drought
Horn of Africa drought drives 20 million towards hunger
A donor conference last week raised almost $1.4 billion for the region, which the UN says is facing its worst drought in 40 years.
The money raised will go towards humanitarian and development projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, as the region experiences its 'worst drought in 40 years,' a statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
The Kannaland Municipality has acknowledged ongoing water challenges in Zoar.
The North African nations of Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia are among the 30 most water-stressed countries in the world, according to the World Resources Institute.
The estimate from the Washington-based development lender released Monday updates a 2018 report with new figures from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, North Africa and East Asia and the Pacific to provide a more complete overview of the potential toll from rising global temperatures.
A chronic drought has left huge swathes of the country parched, as man-made climate change forces shifts in the pattern of rainfall. That has left Lake Mead, the largest US artificial reservoir which is fed by the mighty Colorado River, worryingly low at just a third of its capacity.
Parts of the province have been crippled by a prolonged drought which has the region's biggest metro, Nelson Mandela Bay, facing an unprecedented water crisis.
After a pandemic year that saw the world turned on its head, a forthcoming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), seen exclusively by AFP, offers a distressing vision of the decades to come: malnutrition, water insecurity, pestilence.
If people see full dams, can they be persuaded to reduce their water use?
Nelson Mandela Bay Nqaba Banga said that he would be writing to the highest levels of national government to query a decision to turn down a request for drought disaster declaration.
Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the metro had not yet reached day zero - the day the taps run dry.
The average dam level in the metro is just over 14%.
The stressful situation has led to two farmers taking their own lives in 2017 and 2018.
A bumper harvest is expected due to last year's good rainfall.
The metro has seen one of the worst droughts since 2015 and last year the taps were close to running dry.
In September 2020, the municipality reported that it had experienced day zero, when taps were running dry and dam levels dipped below 19%.
Globally, one in 12 people could face severe water shortages every year by 2100, compared to an average of about one in 33 at the end of the 20th century.
The call comes amid rising temperature's leading to higher water usage across the country.
Beaufort West mayor Noel Constable said the municipality is urging residents to use water sparingly as they are doing everything to keep the taps from running dry.