Drought and desertification LEDC-Sahel

case study revision for drought and desertification in an LEDC.

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  • Created by: Rukhsar
  • Created on: 08-06-10 18:23

Main Facts

Climate: dry with short rainy season (July-Sept)

Annual precipitation (average): 250-500mm

Daily Temperature (average): 28-30°C

Population:Doubling very 20-30 years

Agriculture: subsistence agriculture and nomadic pastoralists

Drought: continuing since 1968

1973-74: drought killed 100,000 in Sahel

1983: 5 million in Ethiopia suffered from drought

1984-91: Sudan experience three major droughts and famines 1991: Sahel rains failed again, leaving 4,28 million facing starvation 1998: problem returns to Sudan

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Effects on human activity/ environment

  • Sahara desert expands south. Valuable grazing land is destroyed.
  • Farmers attempt to grow crops in areas of low rainfall
  • People were forced to migrate south to wetter areas or towards refugee camps where water and food were available, as wells dried up, rivers failed to flood or the land was stripped of fodder.
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Additional detail

Drought in the Sahel occurs when the normal short rainy season is delayed/postponed.

This happens when the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) cannot follow its normal northerly migration pattern.

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