Land grabs leave Africa facing ‘hydrological suicide’ - report
Land grabs leave Africa facing ‘hydrological suicide’ - report
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:13 GMT
Source: alertnet // Emma Batha
LONDON (AlertNet) - A scramble for cheap African farmland by foreign investors threatens to leave millions of people without water and could ultimately drain the continent's rivers, a report warns.
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Investors come from India, Saudi Arabia, China, UAE, Libya, Qatar, the United States, Britain, France and Canada among others, according to GRAIN.
But the report said Africa was in no position to support these massive new agribusiness projects - one in three Africans already lives with water scarcity and climate change will make things worse.
Hobbelink also pointed out that in many parts of Africa there were distinct dry and rainy seasons and local communities had adapted their farming methods to suit these fluctuations. But he said many crops being farmed on the new plantations, including rice, sugar cane and palm oil, required huge amounts of water all year round.
More:
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/land-grabs-leave-africa-facing-hydrological-suicide-report
