المجتمعات تعيد الحياة إلى الأراضي التي أتلفتها تأثيرات التغير المناخي

*هذه المعلومات متوفرة فقط باللغة الإنجليزية.

Hadramawt - Millions of people around the world have already lost their homes, jobs and lives as a result of the ongoing impacts of climate change. In fragile and conflict-affected settings, climate change acts as a threat multiplier, with the severity and frequency of climate-related disasters impeding capacities to adapt to shocks and manage disaster risk. In 2020, at least 13 governorates out of 22 in Yemen were impacted by adverse weather events, affecting over 62,500 families. Thousands more families have already been impacted in 2021.

Around the world, it is often the communities affected the most by climate change that are the first to develop solutions that mitigate their effects at the local-level, finding ways to continue and even expand farming, sustainably access natural resources and live in the aftermath of disaster.

One community in Wadi Hadramawt, in the east of Yemen, did just this when a tropical storm hit in 2008, devastating local infrastructure.

The Valley was Gone, so Were the Farmlands

Mohammed Salman, a farmland owner and the Irrigation Committee Manager in Dahab Valley, is one of many community members who depended on an irrigation system in the area to grow their crops, raise livestock and make a living.

One afternoon, Mohammed and his colleagues were at the highest point in the valley when it started pouring rain, intensifying by the minute. They decided to leave the site and go home. The next morning when they came back to the location, they were shocked that the valley they relied on for irrigation has been destroyed overnight, swept away by the intense rainfall.

“We felt so bad, I cannot describe it. Our land was destroyed and could not be restored easily,” recalled Mohammed.

Not only did the storm destroy the main stream in the valley, undermining the capacity to effectively irrigate agricultural lands, it also waterlogged and damaged the land, making them unsuitable for future crop cultivation and destroying the yields.

“When the great flood came, it damaged large swaths of land and turned them from green spaces to areas filled with stones. It crippled our ability to conduct agricultural activities for years,” explained Mohammed.

The sudden drop in available water and arable land also threatened social cohesion across the community, due to unequal and diminishing access to water resources, and increased competition among the farmers.

"Farmers closer to the water source were getting all the water, leaving little to none for others and leading to fights and quarrels between farmers," said Mohammed.

Unpredictable Weather, Unpredictable Impact

In the past, farmers used to know the percentage of rainfall they received annually, and thus were able to plan their crop cultivation cycles to avoid flooding and maximize their yields.

But this has changed now as climate change has generated unexpected, often extreme and unmanageable weather patterns.

For societies depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, like the people of Dahab Valley, the sudden increase of heavy rains and flooding can be catastrophic.

“We were familiar with moderate floods (before), and few torrential rains here and there, but we were not ready to face this accelerating change in the climate,” said Mohammed.

Bringing Life Back to Lands

After several years where the community of Dahab Valley were unable to cultivate land and earn vital livelihoods, community leaders decided it was time to take action to restore the vital water source. A local engineering team from the Irrigation Committee began to assess the situation voluntarily, hoping to find possible solutions to restore the irrigation system and support renewed agricultural activities.

However, although the committee developed an effective and highly localized feasibility plan to restore the irrigation system, without external support, it was nearly impossible for the people of Dahab Valley to implement. The committee sent out a call for help to humanitarian organizations. International Organization for Migration and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), with funding from the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) responded to this need with the aim to decrease localized drivers of community tension, increase livelihoods and resilience and prevent future displacement.

Highlighting their support for the projects implementation, residents from across Dahab Valley joined the restoration efforts, actively participating in the construction works. IOM and FAO empowered the Water User Association Engineers to implement the plan by providing them with financial support, tools and raw materials, heavy equipment and guidance. The project also facilitated the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the community, which was created by the unequal and diminishing access to water resources. Women and youth were at the forefront of this community-based intervention.

Moreover, the project supported local farmers to plant trees and set up an innovative and sustainable drip irrigation system as a measure against desertification, and to support honey production, a critical cash crop in Yemen.

The hard work and relentless efforts of community members eventually paid off.

The irrigation system began to function again and the once desertified landscapes started to come alive. Plants sprouted around and crop production began to improve.

“After being affected by drought for 13 years, the land is gradually returning to life, and we can now raise livestock and grow food and other crops,” explained Mohammed.

Though agriculture was somewhat revived in Dahab Valley, the people, who remain highly vulnerable, are still concerned about what extreme weather changes could bring to them in the future.

With Conflict, Effects of Climate Change are Worsened

In a country experiencing the evolving impacts of more than six years of conflict and economic collapse, nearly 5 million people in Yemen are on the brink of famine. Yemen has been recognized as

the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. A changing climate adds to the hardship faced by so many, increasing the unpredictability of weather patterns and heightening extreme weather events.

Recent examples only highlight the critical impacts of climate change. In 2019 alone Cyclone Kyarr, the most powerful storm to hit the Arabian Peninsula in 12 years impacted Yemen, followed by Cyclone Maha in November 2019 and Pawan in December 2019. These patterns impact lands already highly vulnerable to desertification, drought and flooding, with annual flash floods and strong winds exacerbate the living conditions of communities, resulting in deaths and injuries, destroying infrastructure and livelihoods and increasing the spread of deadly diseases among the already vulnerable populations.

We Must Address Climate Adversity

The climate emergency has worsened the crisis affecting thousands of displaced people and migrants in Yemen. Although this is a global emergency, its impacts are felt unequally, and those who have contributed least to the emergency are hit the hardest.

Communities around the world must come together with humanitarians to support the most vulnerable countries and people to climate change impacts and facilitating their access to significantly scaled up sustainable and predictable finance for adaptation and resilience.

This is a race against time and every action to mitigate or sustainably adapt to the evolving impacts of climate adversity is needed.

Written by Mennatallah Homaid – IOM Yemen’s Communication Assistant.