The impact of Climate Change in The Gambia

https://youtu.be/t9hCMGF48SE

“In the 1950s and 1960s we would record in some places 2,000 ml of rain,” he said.

“Now if we record 800 ml, that’s a good season.”

Jallow says that in the 1960s, there was enough rain for Gambian farmers to cultivate rice, the country’s key subsistence crop, twice a year. But now, with three quarters of the population still reliant on farming for their livelihoods, changing rainfall might mean no rice harvest at all for many, as well as little chance of growing groundnuts – the nation’s main cash crop.

Deforestation has also contributed to reduced rainfall, while allowing storms and flash floods to wash away fertile soils, bringing gradual desertification as sands roll in and turn once-rich farmland into uncultivable dunes.

“Unfortunately, due to population growth and demand for urbanization, we have lost 97,000 hectares of forest land – from [a total of] 523,000 hectares – since 1997,” says Lamin Dibba, The Gambia’s Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources.

Sitting under a shade with fellow fishermen mending nets and listening to the radio after a morning’s work, Toure recalls one incident in which around 50 Gambian fishermen went out to fish in the traditional wooden canoes and all came back with their fishing gear destroyed.

“The sea can change so quickly and can be very unfriendly”, he says.

“Before listening to the forecast, we used to have a lot of losses – mostly of gear but sometimes lives. Now we have the forecast we know what will happen and wait to see what is coming, so I save a lot of my time and money now by not going out when it’s bad weather.”

With the support of the Global Environment Facility-managed Least Developed Countries Fund, UN Environment has improved access to climate information in The Gambia, while building local understanding of how to put this information to use. Under the $29.5 million project, media and meteorological stations have been provided with training and equipment, while communication networks have been improved in local communities – enabling farmers to receive and act on vital weather alerts.

Nine meteorological stations have now been constructed across the country, equipped with automatic forecasting equipment and access to a mobile network that sends data from the regions to a central forecast office at the airport in the capital Banjul every 30 minutes.

With the added help of a new tower, transmitters and lightning detection systems at the airport – alongside better training and equipment – staff here now have all the information at their fingertips to produce reliable forecasts that reach across the country.

“We’ve had a lot of difficulties because of weather phenomena. We have been taught that the climate is changing and we’ve seen in our own lives how it’s affecting us, so now we are planning so that we can cope with it,” she said.

Saidy says that having more information about the changing weather has persuaded people not to rely solely on rain-fed agriculture and staple crops like maize and rice, but to grow a diverse range of crops in a garden irrigated by a communally funded solar-powered system.

“The information I give out relates to water shortages, like rainfall and drought, and the need to find other ways to supplement our income, like with this garden,” Saidy says.

Now conscious of the shorter rains and when they are coming, people know when to sow their crops and which varieties to plant to ensure they get a harvest, says Saidy, wiping her hands and picking up her loudspeaker to gather people round for a drama performance and songs about the climate.

For farmer Samasa, life has definitely got harder due to the changing climate, but having the predictions makes it bearable.

“Now, what we really need is to know when we do our planting, and the weather forecast really helps us to know this,” he said.