Senegal Climate Change

Part Three
December 4, 2007


Independent journalist Bob Butler traveled to Senegal, Africa, last month as part of a trip sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists, where he saw firsthand how global warming has affected the country. This is the third in a three-part series exploring the impacts of climate change on Senegal.

DAROU FAL, Senegal — As a boy, Pathe Kane's family farmed a large plot of land on which sat deep lakes filled with wildlife.

In his youth, Ousman Sow wandered the land raising cattle with his Fulani nomad tribe. Over time, sand from the Sahara Desert drove Kane's family from its farm, and drought forced Sow's tribe to forego its nomadic lifestyle.

The Senegalese government believes the advance of the desert and the drought are results of climate change that are having a dramatic impact on several countries in Africa — forcing whole communities to relocate, changing entire lifestyles and making it harder for people to make a living.

"There were very, very deep lakes where people were doing fishing. All these depressed areas (valleys) were lakes originally," said Kane, 56, fondly recalling what his home was like during better times. "This area was so beautiful that theShah of Iran visited here and wanted to build a tourist residence."

Farming was much easier, he added. They simply had to sink a well to water their crops of carrots, yams and potatoes. They established a cooperative in nearby Mboro to sell their produce.

There was so much water around that El Hadj Birameka, 85, said they had to be careful around the shoreline.

"There was a big incident and a child was with her dog and a crocodile attacked the child and took away the child and the dog," he said.

Some find it hard to believe that fish and crocodiles were once plentiful in Darou Fal. The area now resembles the rolling landscape of the Sierra foothills.

However, for years, strong winds have covered fertile land with tons of sand and stopped all farming activity. The transformation was hastened by 30 years of drought.

"When it rained, there wasn't enough rain and the landscape disappeared, so the land found itself naked and was vulnerable to be taken away by the strong winds and the sand," said Samba Thiem, regional director of the Senegal Ministry of the Environment, through an interpreter.

The Senegalese government said the Sahara was advancing at least 15 feet a year. Concerned it would encroach on more farmland each year, the country began an ambitious program to reclaim land from the desert by blocking the winds and sand.

Using fir and eucalyptus trees that withstand drought well because they don't need as much water, the government is planting a "green wall" of trees along the edge of the Sahara Desert.

"Thanks to those efforts, we were able to save 12,000 hectares (about 30,000 acres) of land that would have otherwise been lost," Thiem said.

Of particular note was a tree that Thiem pointed out that had been completely covered by a sand dune, now looking more like a large bush growing out of the sand.

But there is still more to do, according to Thiem.

"We have at least 45,000 hectares (111,000 acres) of sand dunes to be stabilized in this zone alone," he said. "That is why Senegal is fighting hard to take back this area, which goes all the way from Dakar to the city of St. Louis (the former capital). That is an area that stretches almost 200 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide."

And the government has no plans of stopping there. President Abdoulaye Wade has ambitions to plant 4,375 miles of "green wall" from Dakar to Djibouti in Eastern Africa.

The nomadic life

The Senegalese Fulani nomads for centuries wandered the African bush, raising cattle, which were their source of wealth. Climate change has changed their way of living and forced them to develop creative solutions to provide revenue.

"With the drought since the 1970s, we have been forced to settle to find new ways of making our living while also maintaining our traditional way of life of cattle breeding," Ousman Sow, 48, the chairman of the Nguigalakh Peulh Village Association, said through an interpreter.

The tribe settled in a farming community near the old Senegalese capital of St. Louis and is now realizing unforeseen benefits.

"One of the disadvantages of being a nomad was we could not get proper education for our children, who were roaming around the bush with us. And we used to live off milk," Sow said. "But now with the drought, there is less and less milk, and that is why we had to make an adjustment to our traditional way of life by combining cattle breeding with agriculture."

Along with raising their cattle, they also are manufacturing traditional clothing and jewelry, which they sell in the village store. They have created a fund that provides loans to needy villagers who can't afford health care or medicine.

Kane's family has returned to farm the land again, thanks to a government-sponsored program created in 1974 to stop the advance of the desert. They are seeing some success farming again, but there is still little rain and now need to use motorized pumps to access ground water.

The recent climate change conference in Bali that resulted in a road map to a solution to curbing greenhouse gases has sparked cautious optimism among officials in Senegal. But that optimism may be premature, said Professor Daniel M. Kamman, the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy.

"One of the things I found by working on the IPPC process, the intergovernmental panel on climate change process, is that experts in almost each area of environmental change who are the most knowledgeable are the most worried," Kamman said.

What often goes unnoticed is that the people of Africa contribute very little to global warming. The biggest polluters are the United States, China, India and Brazil.

Kamman said experts who are the most knowledgeable about climate change are the most worried because change is happening a lot faster than they thought — and few of the impacts being experienced in Senegal actually can be tied directly to climate change at this time.

"But," he went on to say, "when we look back on this decade, I bet we're going to tie a huge number of things that we're right now not totally sure of, but suspect are climate change, very clearly to exactly that."


Part Two
December 4, 2007

Dakar and Rufisque Senegal — The fish market at Soumbebioune (pronounced soom-bih-JUNE) in the capital of Dakar is literally on the shores of Senegal Bay.

The boats go out about 5 a.m. and by mid-afternoon, the market is bustling as fishermen return to sell a variety of fish including tuna, snapper, shark, flounder and squid, right there on the beach.

Saliou Ba started working as a fisherman at the age of 15. But climate change is making it harder for him and the 40 percent of this West African nation's population that depends on fishing to feed their families, according to government environmental experts. Since he can remember, Ba and the other fishermen used to return with their catch about noon or 1 p.m. They now have to work longer hours to catch the same amount of fish they caught just 10 years ago.

Fishermen and government officials agree the nation's fishing infrastructure is under increasing pressure from declining fish stocks caused by salt-water intrusion from rising sea levels. The change that Thiawlene has experienced is only the beginning of what climate change experts predict will be decades of sea level increase.

"In my childhood, say 10 years ago, fisherman didn't have to go too far to get fish. But now (we) have to go as far as Guinea-Bissau or to some neighboring countries to get fish," said Ba, 25.

Guinea-Bissau is approximately 200 miles south of Ba's home in Thiawlene, a coastal community in the town of Rufisque, 20 miles east of Dakar. It is here the sea has risen steadily — 57 years ago, Thiawlene was located a quarter mile to the west in an area that is now covered by the Atlantic Ocean.

The rising sea has sent salt water into crucial mangrove marshes — groups of low trees or shrubs that grow along tidal shores — where many fish reproduce, including flounder, bluefish and shrimp.

"The mangrove is an area that is a very rich feeding ground for fish," said Ernest Dione, deputy environment manager for the Senegal Ministry of the Environment. "With the change of the water tables, salt is moving into the rivers and the mangrove is being destroyed.

"It goes without saying that if feeding conditions are not adequate, reproduction is reduced," Dione said.

Ba sees the effects first hand.

"Many years ago our parents used to live entirely off fishing. That is impossible today because of the destruction of the environment," he said.

Professor Daniel M. Kamman, the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at University of California, Berkeley's, Goldman School of Public Policy explains that one of the effects of climate change is that as the water warms it expands, and that effect takes decades.

"While there's not much evidence that we've seen massive amounts of this so far, we are seeing warming of the ocean," Kamman said. "It's very well documented and over the coming two to three centuries, we expect to see a significant increase in sea level rise from greenhouse gases that we've already emitted, to say nothing of future emissions."

Experts disagree on how much the ocean has warmed over the past 50 years. Some say the increase has been about .3 degrees Fahrenheit; others say it's closer to one degree Fahrenheit. But they all agree that it has warmed.

"The fact is that it is happening and it will only get worse for the next 50 years," said Abdoulaye Ndiaye, the regional team leader for the Global Environment Facility for the United Nations Development Program in Dakar. "We have to put in place systems that can cope with the worst-case scenario."

The human factor

Along with the environmental causes, Dione said there also is the human factor, especially foreign factory ships that catch massive amounts of fish.

"All this contributes to decreasing our fish resources," he said.

Many of these foreign ships come from Europe. The Environmental Justice Foundation reports that the European Union places limits on how much fish these boats are allowed to catch in European water. However, in most cases, there are no limits placed on what they can take in distant waters such as those off of the Senegal coast.

The EJF paper — a report on European bycatch regulations — noted, "this can cause commercially and locally important fish stocks to collapse, endangering the food security of local people and incurring serious economic costs on developing countries."

The factory ships are supposed to stay at least 100 miles off the coast of Senegal, however, said Dione, there have been cases of them fishing much closer to land.

Another factor that reduces fish stocks is the lack of a size limit on fish that are caught. In years past, only adult fish were kept. But there is increasing evidence that fisherman, being forced to travel further and work longer hours, are keeping juvenile fish that were once released.

"This is true for local as well as foreign fishermen," Dione said.

Rising sea levels, fishing infringements and more have prompted Ba to form the Young Fisherman's Association of Thiawlene. The association's purpose is to improve working conditions for those who fish. Currently, their boats — which are about 25-feet long and

4-feet wide — are not covered and many fishermen work without any safety equipment.

The association met with the mayor of Rufisque and was able to obtain 500 life jackets for the local fishermen — a minor success for Ba. However, he says, what the fishermen really need is a miracle.

"For us to stay here and do our economic activities, the greatest help we need is to find a way to stop the sea from advancing," he said.

And, according to Kamman, it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon.




Part One
December 4, 2007

THIAWLENE, RUFISQUE, SENEGAL — Mbaye Dieng awoke to find water rising in his bedroom. He ordered the small children to be placed on the roof for safety, tried to retrieve as many belongings as possible and then waited for help.

For some, Dieng's ordeal is reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina. Instead, it was a torrential rainstorm with strong winds that sent waves crashing over a levee July 4 in Thiawlene (pronounced chow-LIN), a coastal neighborhood of 5,000 residents that lies 3 feet above sea level in the town of Rufisque, about 20 miles east of Dakar, Senegal.

For several years there have been warnings about climate change and global warming, especially in the environmentally-conscious Bay Area.

To date, Bay Area residents have seen few or no effects.

But, the Senegalese government says Dieng's ordeal is a clear example of how climate change is devastating communities all over Africa. The combination of wind, sand and water is destroying homes, ruining livelihoods and changing the way people live. Climate change experts say what happened in Thiawlene this summer will be repeated in coastal communities around the world in coming decades.

Like New Orleans residents, the residents of Thiawlene had to fend for themselves until the government could provide aid. However, the Senegalese government was unable to relocate people whose homes were flooded.

Dieng, 78, was one of those people.

The senior elder of about 100 members of an extended family, Dieng lives in a horseshoe-shaped, motel-like housing complex. Children play in the courtyard, where the women cook and hang clothes to dry. The entrance is about 20 yards from what once was a 4-foot-high earthen levee. The Atlantic Ocean is another 30 yards beyond that.

The storm surge sent water all the way to the rear walls of the complex.

"We were sleeping when the water started coming in," said Dieng through an interpreter, pointing to the waterline, which had reached 4 feet high. "It seeped into the bedrooms and lifted all the beds. We were very, very concerned, very worried."

Immediate assistance from the federal government consisted of food, mattresses and blankets. The residents had to stay with neighbors or family members until the water was pumped out by the army engineering battalion.

"From the Fourth of July to the 20th of July, we stayed here draining the water. That was all we could do," said Lt. Col. Mamadou Adje, the unit's commanding officer.

His men then used 24,000 tons of rock to build up the mile-long levee to the height of 8 feet.

The physical repairs continue as the people of Thiawlene rebuild their homes. However, the emotional devastation the flood created will never be the fixed.

Cemetery desecrated

As Muslims, relatives of the dead often find comfort by visiting the gravesite. The cemetery is adjacent to Dieng's home and once was protected by a 7-foot-high brick wall. Residents watched helplessly as the wall, and half of the graves, washed away during the storm.

"When they have (a) flood they don't check their house — they check here to see if the bodies are still in place," Adje said.

About a 15-foot-long stretch of bricks and a couple of pillars are all that remain of the sea wall. "We started to intervene here first so that we can protect the cemetery before protecting the people."

Along with repairing the levee, the engineers moved some of the graves farther away from the beach. They had to work quickly because another major storm was forecast for the middle of August. The storm hit on the 15th, and the new levee held up well.

"We didn't have any impact on the population," said Adje.

But no one expects the levee to hold back the sea for very long.

"In five years you'll see it here," Adje said, pointing to an area in the cemetery where the tombstones were uprooted from the soil.

Thiawlene's story is a familiar one throughout Senegal.

About 80 miles southeast of Dakar is the town of Popenguine, where President Abdoulaye Wade owns a home. As a precaution against such flooding, he ordered a sea wall built, according to Prime Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare. It cost 1 million Senegal francs, about $2,000, per meter.

Soumare said he believes that unless vigorous efforts are undertaken, the national road, which runs less than a quarter of a mile east of Dieng's home in Thiawlene, will be at the water's edge in less than 50 years.

Is it global warming?

For many, the question is what is causing the country's devastation and forever changing its landscape.

Environmental experts hesitate to point to global warming as the only cause of Thiawlene's flooding.

"There could be subsidence from pumping out water. There could also be salt water intrusion in places because of canals and projects that allow water to get into soils, bog them up and, like sponges with weight on top, they sink," said professor Daniel M. Kamman, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy.

Kamman admits, however, "this is exactly the kind of thing we expect to see in the future." And that does not bode well for low-lying coastal regions like Thiawlene.

"Most of the sea level rise that we expect to see, even from the greenhouse gas we have already emitted, hasn't yet happened," Kamman said.

Dieng has heard about the scientific theories of what causes the flooding, but says he believes it's God's will because it's been happening for a long time. Dieng's childhood house was about 430 yards to the west, in an area that is now covered by the Atlantic Ocean. The family moved to its current home in 1950.

If everyone is right about the sea and it continues to rise, the Diengs will be forced out again and, this time, they would have no place to go. Africans do not have the same resources that many Americans enjoy: There is no homeowners' insurance, there are no FEMA loans.

All they have is hope.