This book will benefit users in food security, agriculture, water
management, and environmental sectors. It provides the first
comprehensive analysis of Greater Horn of Africa (GHA)'s food insecurity
and hydroclimate using the state-of-the-art Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE) and its Follow-on (GRACE-FO)'s, centennial
precipitation, hydrological models' and reanalysis' products. It is
here opined that GHA is endowed with freshwater (surface and
groundwater) being home to the world's second largest freshwater body
(Lake Victoria) and the greatest continental water towers (Ethiopian
Highlands) that if properly tapped in a sustainable way, will support
its irrigated agriculture as well as pastoralism. First, however, the
obsolete Nile treaties that hamper the use of Lake Victoria (White Nile)
and Ethiopian Highland (Blue Nile) have to be unlocked. Moreover, GHA is
bedevilled by poor governance and the ``donor-assistance" syndrome;
and in 2020-2021 faced the so-called ``triple threats'' of desert
locust infestation, climate variability/change impacts and
COVID-19 pandemic. Besides, climate extremes influence its meagre
waters leading to perennial food insecurity. Coupled with frequent
regional and local conflicts, high population growth rate, low crop
yield, invasion of migratory pests, contagious human and livestock
diseases (such as HIV/AIDs, COVID-19 & Rift Valley fever) and poverty,
life for more than 310 million of its inhabitants simply becomes
unbearable. Alarming also is the fact that drought-like humanitarian
crises are increasing in GHA despite recent progress in its monitoring
and prediction efforts. Notwithstanding these efforts, there remain
challenges stemming from uncertainty in its prediction, and the
inflexibility and limited buffering capacity of the recurrent impacted
systems. To achieve greater food security, therefore, in addition to
boosting GHA's agricultural output, UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs suggest that its "inhabitants must create more
diverse and stable means of livelihood to insulate themselves and their
households from external shocks". This is a task that they acknowledge
will not be easy as the path ahead is "strewn with obstacles namely;
natural hazards and armed conflicts". Understanding GHA's food
insecurity and its hydroclimate as presented in this book is a good
starting point towards managing the impacts of the natural hazards on
the one hand while understanding the impacts associated with extreme
climate on GHA's available water and assessing the potential of its
surface and groundwater to support its irrigated agriculture and
pastoralism would be the first step towards "coping with drought" on
the other hand.
The book represents a significant effort by Prof Awange in trying to
offer a comprehensive overview of the hydroclimate in the Greater Horn
of Africa (GHA). Prof Eric F. Wood, NAE (USA); FRSC (Canada); Foreign
member, ATSE (Australia).
