Feeling The Heat

Rising temperature has caused behavioural changes in residents of Akosombo in the Eastern region of Ghana. “These days you need an umbrella to protect you from the excessive heat from the sun when you move around in the afternoon,” said 28 year-old Harriet Awiakye, a resident of Asukwuo, a suburb of Akosombo. “The rooms are very hot at night. We sweat a lot and heat rashes are very common here now. This was not the case when we were growing up,” Ms Awiakye added. Like most residents of Akosombo, Sampson Asare, a Senior High School graduate, is unable to link the rising temperature to the increasingly threatening phenomenon- global warming and rather attributes it to the presence of the Akosombo hydroelectric dam. “I think the dam produces so much heat in the process of generating electricity,” said Sampson Asare, who moved to Akosombo from Kumasi seven months ago, in his quest to explain the development. But not every body is ignorant of climate change. Stephen Dei, a waiter at the Volta Hotel in Akosombo, who has been residing in the community for more than two decades, observed that the heat is not limited to the environs of the dam. “It is part of the general changes in climate all over the world,” he noted. Mr. Dei said the rainfall pattern in Akosombo has also changed. “For about six years now, we have been having less rainfall at the beginning of the season. Unlike previous times when we would have had several days of rain, this year we have had only two rains since February.” “Now, most farmers of maize and cassava have migrated further inland to areas where the rainfall is more frequent and more reliable,” Mr Dei added. Climate change, a global problem, is caused by the concentration of greenhouse gases produced through human activities such as burning fossil fuels. It is mainly caused by industry and transport; deforestation, agricultural activities and a growing population. This has caused environmental degradation and natural disasters which contribute to poverty in affected regions. Dr. Delali Dovie of the Regional Institute of Population Studies, University of Ghana, told this reporter that historical data for Ghana from 1961 to 2000 clearly showed a progressive rise in temperature and decrease in the average annual rainfall. “The average annual temperature is estimated to have increased by one degree Celsius over the period and is expected to rise further over the future,” said Dr Dovie. He noted that in addition to rising temperatures and declining rainfall totals, climate change has led to rising sea levels, disasters such as flooding. Dr Dovie noted that climate change, which is caused by the contamination of the blanket of air above the earth’s surface with toxic substances such as smog, fumes, is a development challenge. The researcher called for financial assessment of the impact of climate change in the country to identify how much the nation is losing to the phenomenon. He said Ghana has failed to undertake a financial appraisal of the toll of climate change. The country has only been featured partially on a pilot basis in a global study by the World Bank. Dr Dovie revealed that it is important to assess the financial implications of climate change, as it is impacting all sectors of the economy. “For example, in a sector like energy if we do not have water in the Akosombo Dam to generate power it would mean we have to shut down and that would affect industry as well as households. “If we are not careful we may have people losing their jobs and that would mean production going down and revenue generated will definitely reduce.” “All these combined is a developmental threat as far as climate change is concerned,” he added, emphasizing that the nation has to know what it is losing as a result of climate change. Ghana is experiencing some leakages but we have not put financial value to it. He said the agricultural sector is a major source of income for more than a half of the nation’s working population. But farmers are compelled to depend on the unpredictable rainfall as agriculture in Ghana is still rain fed. The changes in the rainfall pattern have resulted in declining production. “For a fact we know we have a lot of subsistence farmers who depend solely on farming and yet we have agric been rain fed, which means we should be concerned when we do not have the rains falling on time, which could lead to poor yields and diminishing income.” Agriculture production, he explained, has been severely compromised due to loss of land, shorter growing seasons and more uncertainty about what and when to plant. “This is worsening food insecurity and increase in the number of people at risk from hunger,” he observed. Yield from rain fed crops could be halved by 2020 in some countries “if nothing is done.” He recommended climate change mitigation actions to decrease the intensity of emissions in order to reduce the potential effects of global warming.