Blowing Hot and Cold
on Anthony Lovat in Bolgatanga (Ghana), 16/Apr/2011 10:44, 34 days ago
The heat has returned with a vengeance. Every day the thermometer is well over 40oC. Its scorching, inescapable and oppressive furnace makes everyday existence close to unbearable. Even the simplest of tasks - walking to the shop over the road, making lunch, sitting and reading - are uncomfortable. It is unusually hot, everyone tells us. Each year is worse than last. The climate is changing. The old men don’t understand what is happening. In the rural areas, they are making sacrifices to bring back the old climatic patterns - the ones that their ancestors have known for hundreds and thousands of years.We are hoping that the rains will come soon but it is worth remembering that even the rain patterns are changing.Globally, 2010 was the wettest year ever recorded - a record dating back 110 years. There were serious floods in Pakistan, Australia, The Philippines, China, India, Sri Lanka, Bosnia, Germany, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, The US, Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso and... Ghana.Warnings were sent out to people living along the Volta Rivers but many areas either did not receive the message or chose to ignore it. Flood waters swept down the rivers from Burkina as they were forced to open their overwhelmed dams. Thousands of people lost their homes - the clear up operation is still ongoing. Dozens of people are believed to have died although accurate numbers are impossible to collect from the hardest hit inaccessible areas. Driving from Bolga to Tamale, we passed over the flooded rivers. Massively swollen, they had engulfed half of the villages that straddled their banks. People were living in makeshift shelters on the side of the road. They were the lucky ones - living on the main road, they were the first to receive aid relief.The Akosombo Dam, first built in 1966, was forced to open its flood gates for only the second time in its history. The water level in the Volta Lake was the highest it has ever been.So perhaps this is the pattern that Ghana’s climate will shift to - hotter drier dry seasons and wetter and more intense wet seasons. Only time will tell.I just hope the rain comes soon and rescues us from the intensity of this heat.