Desertification in the Sahel region

Mongo, a town in the Guéra region of Chad, has experienced significant changes in its weather and climate patterns over recent decades, reflecting broader regional trends in the Sahel. There has been a steady increase in average temperatures over the past few decades. The warming is more pronounced during the dry season (November to May) when daytime temperatures often exceed 40°C. Minimum temperatures during the night have also risen, contributing to a higher overall average and reducing night-time cooling.

Mongo, located in a semi-arid zone, experienced significant droughts during the late 20th century. The 1970s and 1980s were particularly dry, with a marked decrease in annual rainfall totals. In the last two decades, there has been some recovery in rainfall levels, with periodic wet years. However, rainfall remains highly unpredictable, both in amount and distribution. The rainy season (typically June to September) has become shorter and more erratic, with frequent delays in its onset or premature cessation.

Droughts have remained a recurrent challenge, leading to water scarcity and affecting agriculture and livestock. Paradoxically, there has been an increase in extreme rainfall events during some years, leading to flash floods that cause soil erosion and disrupt livelihoods.

Mongo has experienced significant land degradation, driven by the combined effects of:

= Reduced vegetation cover due to drought and overgrazing.

= Increased temperatures, which exacerbate soil evaporation rates.

= Unsustainable farming practices that deplete soil fertility.

The erratic rainfall patterns and rising temperatures have affected rain-fed agriculture, the backbone of Mongo’s economy. Crops like millet and sorghum face stress from both water scarcity and heat. The availability of water in seasonal rivers and reservoirs has become increasingly unreliable. All that translates into food insecurity and hunger. Some residents have been forced to migrate to urban centres or adapt to new livelihoods, such as trading or artisanal activities, due to reduced agricultural productivity.

Responding to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor

The parish community of Baro (diocese of Mongo), has experienced for decades the worsening effects of climate change. Under the guidance of Fr Franco Martellozzo (SJ), over a long period of time the community has started various activities to redress the situation, in connection with their journey of faith, building on the social capital of community relations, of parish structures and of the collaboration between churches. For example, the catechumenate programme requires that each child has to grow in responsibility and connect faith with life.

Children are entrusted with a seedling in a public ceremony in the church, in front of all the community, with the request to plant and care for it. In this way, the new generations grow much more conscious of and faithful to the commitment to care for Creation.

This programme has been so successful that also the Muslim children of neighbouring villages, guided by other local organizations, have started doing the same! As a result, every year about 7 or 8 thousand indigenous trees are planted and cared for by the youth, so that they can survive despite the presence of goats and camels, droughts and climate changes, while the sense of responsibility for caring for the commons growths in the community.

 

 

 

 

Another important ecological and socio-economic project is given by the “women’s gardens”, which are a game changer in the struggle for food security in the parish of Baro. Through such vegetables gardens, mothers can secure food to their families. Children help them in the garden, and so they learn skills and adapted agricultural techniques that they will need once grown up. In fact, iron ploughs have been introduced, produced in the diocese’s’ workshops out of old lorry leaf springs. Before such an initiative took root, many parents had to migrate to the South of the country looking for a job, separating them from their families. Now such gardens, fenced with mesh wire to protect them from grazing animals, have also helped minimize migration.

In the face of climate change, such initiative has been possible thanks to the digging of wells and the construction of small dams to collect rain water. In fact, also at Baro weather patterns have remarkably changed: long droughts alternate with heavy rains that flood arid soils. Success is the result of a collective effort and community collaboration, done by local volunteers supported by a sister church in Italy. Many, small and localised interventions that bring about a sort of ecological miracle.

 

Finally, the community had to think of a market mechanism to overcome commercial exploitation and impoverishment. The idea came to establish seeds banks to keep the seeds during the months of abundance, when the price of grains falls because all farmers are selling at the same time. This initiative prevents speculation of middlemen traders, stabilising the price of seeds and making them available to farmers in time of scarcity.

At such a time, a farmer would borrow some sack of seeds from the bank, only to give them back to the bank after the next harvest. Such practice helps farmers to avoid the debt trap, which eventually forces them to sell even their tools and animals, never to recover again. Also in this case, the link between faith and social responsibility led to the successful example of the first seed bank, which has been replicated in many villages and today there are 354 seed banks in the region, bringing together about 35 thousand members and benefiting about 350 thousand people.

 

 

 

An itinerary of hope

In conclusion, the struggle of the community of Baro to overcome the dreadful effects of climate change shows us the potential of Christian communities who link faith and social responsibility in responding to the interconnected cry of the Earth and cry of the poor. Good practices are developed with the participation of all, involving also those who may find themselves at the margins. Above all, such good practices become entry points for dialogue and for working together for the common good and care of Creation with other social and faith groups in society. In fact, scaling up good practices in solidarity and building a movement for food security rekindles hope and proclaims that a different world is possible.

Chiara Pellicci – Popoli e Missione (November 2024)