Climate change is already in motion and the populations of many countries are already facing this reality on a violent and regular basis, especially in poor countries affected by armed conflict or natural disaster. As a reminder, the number of climate-related disasters (drought, flooding, cyclones…) has increased five-fold over the last 30 years.
SOLIDARITES, an international humanitarian organization, is confronted by climate change on a daily basis in many countries. For example:
In Shatkira district in Bangladesh, where the population mainly lives off fishing and food-producing agriculture, flooding, cyclones and rising sea levels regularly destroy homes, infrastructure and growing areas. To prevent several million people from swelling the ranks of "climate refugees" in the capital city of Dacca, SOLIDARITES is working to improve living conditions and sanitary facilities, whilst supporting subsistence activities affected by salt-water land pollution.
In the Horn of Africa, where droughts are more and more frequent, agro-pastoral communities are no longer able to cope with successive periods of drought. When livestock can no longer survive climate conditions and harvests plummet by over 75% - as is the case in arid areas of North Kenya this year – the very livelihood of these communities is on the edge of collapse. SOLIDARITES is working to support the subsistence activities of affected communities, to enable them to adapt to a more and more hostile climate.
Faced with these cruel realities, Alain Boinet, Managing Director of SOLIDARITES, declares that: "The countdown has started for hundreds of millions of human beings, whose lives are already threatened today. In Copenhagen, the Governments must take their full responsibility for individual and public security, and the French authorities should set an example. This is urgent. A disappointing outcome would be very dangerous."
SOLIDARITES, a humanitarian aid organization specialized in emergency relief and reconstruction, carried out 127 aid programs in 15 countries for 3.4 million people last year. These programs targeted the following areas: access to drinking water and sanitation, food security and reconstruction of infrastructures.
Press contact: Constance Decorde: 01 80 21 05 91 - cdecorde@solidarites.org
To find out more about SOLIDARITES: www.solidarites.org
