Page 188 - Super Earth Encyclopedia

DROUGHT

AND FAMINE

SAHEL DROUGHT

Many tropical countries have alternating dry and
rainy seasons, so people rely on crops that they can
grow in the months when it rains. But sometimes
the rain does not fall, the land turns to dust, and the
crops fail. The worst of these droughts have occurred
in the Sahel region on the southern fringes of the
Sahara Desert in Africa. Some droughts have lasted many
years, and as water supplies dry up and crops wither
in the fields, farm animals die and the people starve.
Such famines may occur more frequently, as climate
change makes the seasonal rains even less dependable.

AT A GLANCE

• LOCATION South of the Sahara,
from the Atlantic to the Red Sea
• AREA 1,158,000 sq miles
(3 million sq km)
• POPULATION AT RISK 15 million
• LONGEST RECENT DROUGHT

From 1968 to 1974

STATS AND FACTS

DISASTER RAINFALL
Droughts can occur
almost anywhere in A drought from There is less than
the 1960s–80s
than 4 in (10 cm)
DISASTER ZONES the poorer nations TEMPERATURE 10 Temperature is a key drought factor. 50
the world, but they
of rainfall a year
affected most of the
are most severe in
in the Sahel
50 million people
region.
living in the Sahel.
of the tropics, where
people are at risk
of famine. They are
On June 25, 2010, it peaked at 121.3°F
(49.6°C) in the Sudan, eastern Sahel.
often forced to rely
on humanitarian
30
40
°C
20
aid for survival.
186 °F 50 68 86 104 122
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