The findings of a recent NASA study that connects the decline of rainfall in East Africa with warmer sea temperatures in the Indian Ocean are consistent with the experiences described by Climate Witnesses in the region.



Rainfall in the region has decreased by around 15 percent since the early 1980s according to the study.



Excerpts from the NASA article:

"The last 10 to 15 years have seen particularly dangerous declines in rainfall in sensitive ecosystems in East Africa, such as Somalia and eastern Ethiopia," said Molly Brown of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., a co-author of the study. "We wanted to know if the trend would continue or if it would start getting wetter." To find out, the team analyzed historical seasonal rainfall data over the Indian Ocean and the eastern seaboard of Africa from 1950 to 2005. The NASA Global Precipitation Climatology Project's rainfall dataset provided a series of data covering both the land and the oceans. They found that declines in rainfall in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe were linked to increases in rainfall over the ocean."

Climate Witnesses in Eastern African countries Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania have described the impact that declining rainfall has had on their region.

"Continuing along a "business as usual" scenario -- with current trends in declining rainfall and agricultural capacity continuing as it is currently to 2030, the team found that the number of undernourished people will increase by more than 50 percent in eastern Africa.

WWF's East Africa Regional Programme Office is working with farmers and other affected groups in the region to help them adapt to the changes. Globally, WWF is working with governments and other organisations to come up with a new global deal that will adequately address the climate change threat.