Desert Spreading "Like Cancer" in the Middle East -- Report
Desert spreading like 'cancer,' Egypt
conference told
Agence
France-Presse, April 2, 2010
ALEXANDRIA, Egypt
(AFP) – The desert is making a comeback in the Middle East, with
fertile lands turning into barren wastes that could further destabilise
the region, experts said at a water conference on Thursday.
"Desertification
spreads like cancer, it can't be noticed immediately," said Wadid Erian,
a soil expert with the Arab League, at a conference on Thursday in the
Egyptian coastal town of Alexandria.
Its effect can be
seen in Syria, where drought has displaced hundreds of thousands of
people, ruining farmers and swelling cities, Erian said.
He said Darfur in
western Sudan is still reeling from a devastating war exacerbated by a
shortage of water and fertile land.
The United
Nations Development Programme's 2009 Arab Human Development Report said
desertification threatened about 2.87 million square kilometres of land
(1.15 million square miles) -- or a fifth of the Middle East and north
Africa.
Erian said a
large portion of rangeland and agricultural land was under threat, with
little effort taken so far to reverse the process.
Burgeoning
populations, which put further strain on the environment, and climate
change are accelerating the trend, he said.
"The trend in the
Arab world leans towards aridity. We are in a struggle against a
natural trend, but it is the acceleration that scares us," he said.
"Most Arab
countries until 2006 dealt with it as one problem among many. Then
agriculture ministers described it as a danger threatening the Arab
world. That is because they began to feel pain."
A 2007 UN study
spoke of an "environmental crisis of global proportions" that could
uproot 50 million people from their homes by 2010, mostly in Africa.
Erian said that
if unchecked, the trend could emerge as a threat to international
stability, a conclusion shared by the UN report.
"It will lead to
more immigration and less security. It will lead to people losing hope,"
he said.
Fatima el-Malah, a
climate change adviser for the Arab League, said despite its impact
donor countries have not dealt with desertification as a priority.
Programmes by the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification were underfunded,
she said. "They said just draw a plan and we'll fund you. There was
never any funding."
