Floods threaten food security for more than 5 million people in Africa

With global average temperatures rising, it seems that the problem will not stop now, and flood rates will continue to increase, so it is expected that more people will face problems with food security.

A research team led by scientists from New York University indicated that the impact of floods on the food security of the population of the African continent appears within only a few months of the flood, contrary to the perceptions of scientists in this scope previously.

Floods are the accumulation of water and its run-off on dry land, and are usually caused by the flooding of inland waters from rivers, streams or tidal water, or by the unusual accumulation of heavy rainwater or dam water.

Millions of people's lives are at risk

According to the study, published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS ), researchers conducted a detailed examination of flood conditions between 2009 and 2020 in more than 12 countries in western, eastern and southern Africa, including Nigeria, Niger, Kenya and Mozambique. and Malawi.

The researchers were primarily interested in studying the impact of floods on a food security measure used by the USAID Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

According to the study, the results showed that the problems of food insecurity in 12% of the areas under study were associated with floods in the period under examination, as there was severe damage to infrastructure, agricultural lands and livestock.

Calculating that percentage compared to the population, the research team indicated, according to an official press release issued by New York University, that this means threatening the lives of 5.6 million people on the African continent.

The crisis is deeper than we think

In their study, the researchers point out that the relationship between floods and food security is deeper than the researchers previously imagined, as it was believed that the problem was related to the level of state management, which, for example, might have to raise food prices because the water had flooded the fields and damaged crops.

But the study confirms that it extends to the context of food production itself as well as access to it. For example, floods may destroy infrastructure, preventing food production, transportation from factories or farms, and access to the public.

In addition, floods may cause the spread of water-borne diseases, as they cause the sewage systems of those countries to spoil.

World changing

The researchers' interest in deepening the understanding of floods and their impact on food security comes in the context of a significant increase in the number, intensity and duration of floods in the world, due to global warming.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Special Report on Climate Extremes, "It is increasingly clear that climate change has unmistakably affected many of the water-related variables that contribute to flooding, such as precipitation and snowmelt." .

With global average temperatures rising, it seems that the problem will not stop now, and flood rates will continue to increase, so it is expected that more people will face problems with food security.