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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 27, 1983
PAGE 8
lack of fodder. In Mozambique, the once-mighty Limpopo River is
so low that sea water from the Indian Ocean has penetrated
upstream, spoiling arable land..•.
Just why Africa faces periodic droughts is unknown. The experts
can only say that the droughts tend to be cyclical.... Some
scientists have noted a relationship between rainfall patterns
and sunspot activity, but they cannot yet explain it. By follow
ing the sunspots, however, they believe they can forecast an end
to the drought--in two to seven years. Sadly, for Africa, that
will not be soon enough.
India's Unprecedented Emergency
Sixteen years ago, the nation of India faced an extreme food shortage. For
weeks, an endless procession of freighters and tankers converted to grain
haulage sailed from the United States to India. This oceanic pipeline
rescued the Indian people from starvation.
The crisis of 1967 abated. Since then, the monsoons have generally been
good. New "wonder grains" have enabled India to build up nationwide grain
surpluses.
But now, India, especially in its southern states, is in the throes of a new
drought. Fresh water is in desperately short supply. Only the country's
reservoir of food surpluses--which can't last long--is keeping famine away.
How many people face immediate peril?
So many that one wonders why the
impending crisis in India is not already screaming headline news around the
world. Even the headline in the April 6 DAILY TELEGRAPH of London seemed
too small for the story:
More than 100 million people in the South Indian peninsula face
dehydration and diseases during the next two months because of
lack of fresh drinking water. And most of the population of the
drought-stricken southern States will have to be fed with grain
from the central food buffer.
The agony of the south could well be prolonged.
Some Indian
meteorological scientists predict� seven-year
.££Y
speIT:•.•
The problem of potable water has become particularly acute in the
rural heartlands where municipal supplies do not exist. All of
the smaller rain-fed rivers have dried up and the water table in
the wells has fallen low. Only a crash programme, possibly with
the help of the Indian Army or the import from northern India of
drills and hand pumps, can stave off a major disaster in south
India.
On the west coast, the sea has invaded the dry river beds and the
normal flow of some streams has been reversed, with nothing but
sea water for 23 miles inland. Millions of villagers in Kerala
have to trudge miles for a few buckets of water.
An earlier TELEGRAPH account reported that the main hopes of averting
famine in the state of Tamil Nadu hang by the slender chance that the south
west monsoon, due in June, might be better than last year.