– Farmers clearly notice the dissemination of weather patterns, especially when it comes to rainfall. October, November typically rainy months, snow begins to appear in the mountains. Now they are increasingly dry – says Jan Wysocki.
An employee of the Polish Center for International Assistance in April visited the Akkar region in the north of Lebanon, at the border with Syria. In this area – where, as he points out, PCPM has been operating for years and helps residents, including refugees – agriculture is the dominant occupation of the local community. Lebanon is aimed at the enormity of social problems and challenges, including the economic crisis that has been going on for several years. Now climate change further deepens poverty.
Farmers are poor
Wysocki points out that traditional agriculture practiced in the region is strictly dependent on predictable seasons, and the sliding of the weather, the shift of the rainy season is very striking.
The Middle East is one of the fastest warming regions of the world. The temperature growth rate is there Even several times higher than global average. This means not only heat waves, but also other weather changes. From the 1950s, annual average The sum of rainfall is falling, And if the climate warming continues, it will decrease even more to the end of the century. Along with higher evaporation – this is the result of an increase in temperature – this can lead to a serious lack of water.
– Olive or vines for centuries now need additional irrigation. This increases costs, reduces the profitability of agriculture, reflects not only on people living from the earth, but all over the community.
– says. This is reflected on their families and communities. – When farmers have less money, they sometimes do not go to school because they have to work or help at home. Therefore, climate change deepens unevenness, even among the youngest – he points out.
Fires and floods
The need for irrigation – if possible – is just one of the problems. As the PCPM employee says, more pests and diseases appear with the climate change. As a consequence, farmers use more pesticides, and this not only increases costs again, but also has negative effects on nature or soil quality.
Another effect of drought is a fire, which in recent years is a growing problem. – And when the fire breaks out, you can hardly fight it. Even in a developed country, fires in mountainous terrain – and this is the majority of Lebanon – would be a challenge. First of all, they would require the use of helicopters and aircraft. And this is not in Lebanon. The local civil defense, which can be compared to the Polish Volunteer Fire Brigade, is extremely underfunded, it lacks equipment. So when there is a fire in the mountains, you can only let him burn or count on rain – reports Wysocki.
The media almost every year informs about fires that occur especially in the summer. Sometimes firefighters support military helicopters, However, the country's resources to deal with fire are very limited.
– In Beirut, PCPM supported civil defense units by installing solar panels on the roof. And thanks to the fact that they do not have to pay for electricity, they collected funds for repairing a non -working car. We also purchased fire vehicles for the civil defense unit in Kubajat – says a representative of the organization.
– Two years ago we saw huge fires in the north of Lebanon. And the areas that were overgrown with forests are now destroyed. So when it rains after drought, this water, instead of staying in the environment, flows very quickly. And this immediately in excess, because it happened that in a few days it drops as much as on average for 2-3 months. This leads to the destruction of roads and threatens residents – says Wysocki.
Climate change creates conditions conducive to fires, but for Sticking fire is most often people. This may be the result of recklessness and disregard of the threat, but also poverty. People use firing, e.g. as a method of “cleaning” land for cultivation or buildings, in a way that bypasses the procedures and does not involve costs.
Domino effect
Wysocki talks about “domino effect”:
– drought destroys nature and agriculture, intensifies fires; Later rain causes further damage; There is a lack of resources to deal with these problems, and the community with every such cataclysm will be regretted.
This is imposed on an economic crisis, which has been going on in Lebanon since 2019. – Inflation is best illustrated. When I was there 6 years ago, one dollar was worth £ 1,500. Today it is 89,000. And salaries – especially in the public sector – are almost not growing. And someone who earned $ 1,000 before the crisis now earns 200. A large part of society impoverished – indicates Wysocki.
PCPM activities in the north of the country are aimed at alleviating these problems and building resistance's resistance to a growing climate threat. In a country where – as Wysocki says – in principle there is no water management run by the state, the support of NGOs may be the only support.
– As PCPM, we try to support farmers in it and in the north of the country we build irrigation channels. They work on a gravitational basis, just adjust the valves – thanks to which they do not require pumps. We have already built a total of 10 kilometers of such channels. It is worth noting that we have been financing this type of work from the program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland for years – he says.
In addition, PCPM has equipped a sewage treatment plant with Kubajat with solar panels. – The municipality had no money for it, and now the sewage treatment plant is self -sufficient. The issue of clean water is crucial, which can be seen even after the threat of cholera, which appeared in Lebanon a few years ago. Now, when the sewage treatment plant operates, we support connecting more places to the sewage network – says Wysocki.
…
You can support PCPM activities in libraing through the site pcpm.org.pl/wspieram