Bits and Bites from Around the World > 700+ wild animals to be culled for food in starving Namibia

 

700 wild animals, including elephants and hippos, to be killed for meat in Namibia

By Sarah Do Couto  Global News

Posted August 29, 2024 10:35 am

 3 min read

In an effort to prevent people from starving amid a severe drought in Namibia, the government will cull more than 700 wild animals for their meat.

The southwestern African country is currently facing the worst drought in 100 years. In an August report from the United Nations, officials said the humanitarian crisis in Namibia is likely to leave nearly half of the population — about 1.4 million people — experiencing high levels of food insecurity between July and September.

Namibia’s environmental ministry on Monday said it would use game meat to support the country’s drought relief program by culling 723 wild animals, including 83 elephants, 30 hippos, 30 zebras, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, 100 blue wildebeest and 100 elands.

The animals are being sourced by professional hunters from national parks and communal areas in line with sustainable game numbers, the ministry said.

Culling the animals will also allow for the preservation of grazing and water areas for wildlife amid the country’s drought, officials said. As is, wild animals are forced to compete for these already limited resources.

In nearby Zimbabwe last year, at least 100 elephants died in the country’s largest national park as a result of drought in the country, The Associated Press reported.

As well as combating drought and human hunger, officials said the hunting of elephants specifically is needed to combat increasing instances of conflict between elephants and people. These conflicts can be fatal for humans, who may encounter wild elephants acting aggressively as they search for food and water.

“With the severe drought situation in the country, conflicts are expected to increase if no interventions are made,” the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism statement read.

The elephants will be culled in small numbers from different regions across Namibia.

As of Monday, 157 animals have already been hunted, and 56,875 kilograms of meat has been secured for distribution.

The government said the wild game meat is “absolutely needed” during this “very difficult time” in Namibia.

“This exercise is necessary and is in line with our constitutional mandate where our natural resources are used for the benefit of Namibian citizens,” the statement reads. “This is also a prime example that conservation of game is really beneficial.”

Officials said the wild game provisions will improve people’s nutrition, contribute to poverty reduction and benefit the economy through employment opportunities, which will generate income. As of this month, 84 per cent of Namibia’s food reserves have already been exhausted. A national state of emergency was declared in the country on May 22.

United Nations officials said the drought in Namibia, brought on by El Niño, is contributing to “severe acute malnutrition” among children under five years old. Deaths have already been reported.

Women and girls in the country must now walk farther to collect food and water, which the United Nations said also increases their risk of facing gender-based violence. The more than 700 animals killed for game meat will be sourced specifically from Namib Naukluft Park, Mangetti National Park, Bwabwata National Park, Mudumu National Park and Nkasa Rupara National Park.

The government still condemns the illegal poaching of wild game.

Climate Change > Will the highest mega-city in the world survive global warming?

 

Whatever you think about global warming, Mexico City has a major problem. Hot, dry weather has reduced the city's aquifer to a fraction of what it was and 'rainy season' is still 4 months away. Desperate rationing measures are already in place and city residents don't like them.

Mexico City water crisis nearing 'day zero'

By Mark Moran

An aerial view showing thousands of people on the esplanade of the Zocalo de Mexico City, Mexico, in 2023. Water officials say the city is facing an impending water crisis that could leave taps in the city of 22 million people dry. Photo by Madls Hartz/EPA-EFE

Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Mexico City, one of the world's largest and most densely populated cities, could be on the verge of running out of water, and prolonged drought and above-average temperatures are hastening the problem, Mexican authorities have said.

In recent days, some Mexico City residents have protested in the streets to raise awareness of the shortages where, according to local authorities, water levels are at their lowest levels in recorded history.

Protesters have taken their frustrations to the National Water Commission in Acambay, which sits in the State of Mexico, and in the Azcapotzalco municipality in Mexico City, where angry residents blocked vital roads to draw attention to the lack of water.

Water is a centuries-old issue in Mexico City. When the Spaniards settled it in the 16th century, they saw the abundance of water as an impediment to growth and so razed many of the old buildings, drained the lake bed that lies beneath Mexico City, filled in canals and cut down forests.

They saw "water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive," said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization.

Fast forward to 2024 and recent water shortages caused by higher-than-normal temperatures and prolonged drought have frightened and angered residents, some of whom say they are without water at their tap for months at a time.

Alejandro Gomez, who lives in Tlalpan, a tiny and picturesque district of Mexico City with cobblestone streets, a tiny town square dotted with trees, shops and small restaurants, said he gets a trickle of water for a few hours at a time, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then, the tap will be completely dry for many days. His family exists on the water he can buy and store.

They capture their dirty bathwater to flush the toilet. "We need water. It's essential for everything," Gomez said. The weather and drought are making life even harder, he said. "Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It's even worse, things are more complicated."

Most recently, authorities have introduced significant restrictions on the water pumped from aquifers in an attempt to conserve.

"Several neighborhoods have suffered from a lack of water for weeks, and there are still four months left for the rains to start," said Christian Domínguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "That is assuming the rainy season is .... rainy, which, given recent weather shifts as a result of climate change, is not a sure bet."

Many of the city's politicians have downplayed the serious nature of the water shortage, averting talk of any sense of impending crisis.

"Water shortages are not a new issue," Fausto Lugo García, Mexico City's former secretary of civil protection, said. "The capital has recurrent problems in supply and there have been times when the government [both federal and local] has to limit it, since the demand is met through the Cutzamala System, but also through wells. And even then it is insufficient."

But some water experts warn the situation has now reached such critical levels that Mexico City could hit "day zero" in a matter of months -- where the taps run completely dry for large parts of the city of 22 million, which sits, at 7,300 feet above sea level, on top of porous, clay soil, into which the city is now slowly sinking.

It is highly prone to earthquakes and the effects of climate change. Among the most densely populated places on the planet, Mexico City has been the victim of chaotic urban development and sprawl and leaky and inconsistent infrastructure, which has left its residents hanging in the balance in the face of the water shortage as demand increases.

Lugo García has acknowledged the severity of the water situation, and called on Mexico City residents to ration it and "prioritize essential actions for survival." He said people should restrict water usage to human consumption and not use it to wash cars, sidewalks or other unessential things.

But the conservation measure may be far too little too late. About 60% of Mexico City's water comes from its aquifer, which is being drained far faster than it can be replenished, according to recent research that shows the city is sinking at a rate of 20 inches per year.

Its geography and urban development have not helped matters. In the rainy season, the city is prone to flash flooding thanks to the sprawling concrete and other infrastructure, and rather than soaking into the ground and replenishing the aquifer, the rainfall does not get absorbed.

And because Mexico City and other large urban areas such as Monterrey and Guadalajara lack a rainwater harvesting system or advanced recycling methods, they are largely reliant on how much water Mother Nature gives them, and on how much residents are willing to conserve, which, no matter how many restrictions are imposed, may be enough to stay ahead of demand and the impending end of readily available water.

Climate Change > California's Great Drought is over, for now - Thanks Hilary (Not Clinton)

California is now practically drought-free, but we keep wasting

so much rainwater

A driver whose car stalled out on flooded Avenue 48 asks for help from a passerby during Tropical Storm Hilary.

 

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

BY GRACE TOOHEYSTAFF WRITER 

AUG. 29, 2023 3 AM PTShow more sharing options

Almost all of California is finally drought-free, after Tropical Storm Hilary’s rare summer drenching added to this winter’s record-setting rainfall totals.

But despite all that drought-busting precipitation, California continues to capture only a percentage of that water. Much of the abundance in rain from Hilary ended up running off into the ocean — not captured or stored for future use, when California will inevitably face its next drought.

“We’re not even coming close to capturing all the runoff,” said Mark Gold, the director of Water Scarcity Solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He still called Hilary’s rainfall “an unexpected boon” for Southern California’s local water supplies, but said too much of the storm’s water washed away — the latest reminder of the state’s urgent challenge to better capture rainwater to help refill vital groundwater resources.

“The potential is really there for us to do even better,” Gold said. “We can definitely do a lot more than what we’re doing.”

CALIFORNIA

L.A. promised to stop wasting so much stormwater. But progress has been painfully slow

Feb. 21, 2023

Following the torrent of winter storms from a parade of atmospheric rivers, much of California pulled out of drought conditions after three of the state’s driest years on record. And Hilary continued to build on that trend — pulling one of the state’s driest regions out of such dire conditions.

“Most of that lingering drought ... has been essentially removed from the Mojave Desert,” said David Simeral, a climatologist at the Desert Research Institute, who mapped the latest U.S. Drought Monitor update. While much of the state moved out of drought conditions after strong winter and spring atmospheric river storms, Simeral said the Mojave didn’t benefit as much from those rainmakers.

But after Hilary dumped 2 to 6 inches across the Mojave, “it was enough to be able to remove the remaining areas of drought,” he said. The Mojave had been in drought conditions since August 2020.

Only California’s most northwestern and southeastern corners remain under moderate drought or in abnormally dry conditions — just 6% of the state, according to the drought monitor.

State and local officials have been actively working to improve methods to capture stormwater, but it’s simply not been fast enough to keep up with growing water demands in a more extreme climate — while balancing flood control. Los Angeles County recently shared its latest water plan, which includes lofty goals to greatly increase yearly groundwater recharge.

But when fast, strong storms like Hilary currently hit, the local infrastructure isn’t able to capture a majority of the deluge.

“What that means is that there’s larger amounts of rainwater rolling down the hill, rolling down to the street ... our systems are getting flooded and overwhelmed pretty quickly,” said Art Castro, a watershed manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. He said that happened during Tropical Storm Hilary at the Tujunga Spreading Grounds — one of the county’s larger spreading grounds, which employ earthen bowls to capture runoff and encourage the rain to percolate into the earth, recharging important aquifers.

When the basins are full, the water will just “bypass the system,” Castro said, running off into the Pacific.

Still, the city was able to capture more than 10,000 acre-feet of water from Hilary’s rainfall, as of preliminary numbers last week, with more expected as water continues to be diverted from regional dams, Castro said. That’s about 3.2 billion gallons, enough to provide a year’s worth of water to 40,000 households, he said.

However that 10,000 acre-feet only makes up about 7% of the water the city has captured since October, Castro said.

“In a perfect world, we should have captured a lot more than 10,000 acre-feet because of Hilary,” Castro said. “But because of the limitations of our infrastructure ... we weren’t able to maximize that potential.”

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Tracking California’s water supplies

July 8, 2022

And maximizing that water is increasingly important for L.A., as drained aquifers cannot just bounce back after one good water year.

“What we need to do is either capture a lot of the wet season, or develop more stormwater recapture projects that can take advantage of an average year,” Castro said. That will likely require “back-engineering” of L.A.’s water system, he said, as much of it was designed with older rain models in mind, when storms weren’t as intense.

County-operated spreading grounds, of which there more than two dozen, captured approximately 8,600 acre-feet of stormwater during Hilary’s storms, about 2.8 billion gallons, according to L.A. County Public Works spokesperson Steven Frasher. But in this above-average rainfall year, that amounts to less than 2% of the county’s stormwater captured since October.

On a statewide level, Hilary also didn’t have a major effect on water supplies.

Statewide

Statewide reservoir storage capacity is 130% of average for this month.

Historical average

78% full

78% full

Data as of Aug. 28

California Department of Water Resources

Sean Greene

LOS ANGELES TIMES

“This was a very fast moving storm and, really, it was largely a Southern California event,” said Jeanine Jones, the interstate resources manager for the California Department of Water Resources. “It caused a lot of flash flooding in places that aren’t designed to handle a lot of water, like Death Valley and some of the desert areas, but from a water supply perspective, it’s not really very significant.”

Most of the state’s reservoirs, and its largest, are located in northern California, which meant they were largely unaffected by the southern tropical storm, Jones said. And, perhaps more importantly, most of those reservoirs already sit at some of the highest levels in years, many measuring well above 100% of historical averages, state data show.

“We got a lot of water all at once in a really short time, but it wasn’t the kind of storm that does much for water supply,” Jones said.

The ground can only absorb so much moisture so fast from such quick, intense storms, like Hilary, Jones said.

“The groundwater takes time to recharge,” Jones said. “Most of that water is going to run out to the ocean or run into a desert playa.”

But in the short term, officials are hopeful the rainfall from the unusual tropical storm will help with one thing: wildfires.

“It should help some in terms of adding some soil moisture and helping the plants to not be so dried out,” Simeral said, which creates less fuel for flames.

Forecasters typically expect September to begin the peak of Southern California’s fire season, but the recently added moisture could help delay that, said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

“Hopefully this extra precipitation will push that back even further,” she said.