East Africa is facing another severe drought. In Somalia, rainfall is far below normal, rivers and wells are drying up, and pasture is disappearing. This crisis repeats almost every year, even though drought is increasingly predictable using weather, satellite, and climate data. The problem is not uncertainty but inaction. Seasonal drought is treated as an emergency each time, rather than as a known and recurring risk that can be planned for.
The human impacts are severe. Families lose crops, income, and reliable access to water at the same time. Children face hunger, disease, and many households are forced to migrate to towns or displacement camps. These shocks strip families of stability and make recovery harder after each drought cycle. Without early support, temporary stress turns into long-term vulnerability.
Animals suffer greatly during drought. When water and grazing land disappear, they weaken, stop reproducing, and die in large numbers. Many endure thirst, hunger, and exhaustion before they die, experiencing extreme suffering throughout the drought.
This suffering is preventable. Governments and partners can use satellite monitoring, rainfall data, and predictive models to identify drought risk months in advance and act early. Planning ahead means setting aside contingency budgets, investing in weather stations and mobile alert systems, and maintaining water infrastructure before failure occurs. Mobile data systems can pre-register vulnerable households so cash or support can be delivered quickly when early-warning thresholds are reached. Early action costs less, protects lives and livelihoods, and reduces the need for repeated emergency response.
To understand more about the scale of the problem and recent drought responses in Somalia, visit ReliefWeb.
