Climate change increases the frequency and duration of droughts. Many countries are declaring alerts for lack of water and beginning to expand action plans in the face of lack of water in the summer ahead.
Somalia has declared a state of alert for the drought that is hitting the land.
National disaster
The President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, It has declared the state of "national disaster" to be able to face the situation of lack of water caused by the severe drought that is suffering in much of the country. Faced with a drought of such magnitude, administrations have to move to extreme water saving methods. Reduction and even elimination of street cleaning, water cuts, pressure reduction, etc.
Mohamed made a wake-up call to the Somali community to respond urgently to these calamities. Lack of water not only leads to poverty, but increased disease, hunger, etc. In addition, he has called on the business community in his country and the Somali population in exile to participate in recovery operations in the affected areas.
Affected population
There are about 3 million Somalis who are being affected by this drought and they will be in a food emergency situation by June 2017. This can cause famine in much of the country due to the lack of water for irrigation and crops.
The president is continually receiving reports on the evaluation and the response he must have in such an emergency situation. The drought has displaced to more than 135.000 people in Somalia since November, according to data collected by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
International organizations fear that this extreme drought situation will generate a famine that will produce about 250.000 deaths as occurred in 2011.