Mozambique among African countries most exposed to El Niño – BMI

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique among African countries most exposed to El Niño – BMI

10:31 CAT | 06 Apr 2017

Um camponês numa "machamba" de milho estragado por excesso de água em Guijá, província de Gaza, sul de Moçambique, 21 de fevereiro de 2017. Em Guijá, sul de Moçambique, “as coisas continuam complicadas” e, meses após uma seca severa, o pesadelo hoje são as inundações, com a subida do rio Limpopo a afetar mais de 600 agricultores, ameaçando a campanha agrícola que se inicia. (ACOMPANHA TEXTO DE 05/03/2017) ANTÓNIO SILVA/LUSA

Lusa (File photo)

The BMI International consultancy said yesterday that the potential return of El Niño at the end of the year endangers agricultural production in several African countries, including Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania.

“Intermittent droughts, especially in southern Africa, mean that food security in some areas is already precarious and we emphasize Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania as countries particularly exposed to this threat,” the analysis released yesterday by the Fitch rating agency reads.

The return of El Niño later this year is a possibility, and the resurgence of this meteorological phenomenon that emerged in 2015 again raises fears of the warming of temperatures in the Pacific Ocean and dry weather in southern and eastern Africa.

“The 2016/2017 harvest, which is currently underway or is already complete, will be spared the El Niño weather pattern. However, it may reach the region in the second half of this year,” analysts warn.

The Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute describes the El Niño pattern as the “anomalous warming of the surface waters of the Central-East sector of the Pacific Ocean, predominantly in its equatorial range”, presented as “an ocean-atmospheric phenomenon that affects the regional and global climate, and affects the general circulation of the atmosphere”.

El Niño “is responsible for years considered to be dry or very dry. It is characterized by variations in the atmosphere over the region of heated waters and occurs at average intervals of four years and persists for 6 to 15 months”.

Source: Lusa