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New IR Report: Greening the desert: Water Solutions for West Africa

Islamic Relief launches new West Africa report

As many as 20 million people are facing chronic food shortages across the Sahel region of West Africa - some of whom are on the brink of starvation. Resilience has been debilitated in West Africa due to cyclical droughts, poverty, desertification, political conflict and insufficient food production - and with climate change things are only set to get worse.

What people need in West Africa now right now is emergency relief, but wouldn’t be great if there were long-term solutions that really allowed people to stand on their feet? What the Sahel needs is long-term water solutions and not just handouts.

If the interventions in West Africa are not long-term, it may be the same story year-on-year. It is for these reasons that Islamic Relief has today released a new report today called “Greening the desert: Water Solutions for West Africa”, highlighting the urgent need for long-term solutions.

Islamic Relief believes that much poverty is linked to problems with water. With effective provision of water, communities can get cleaner water and through this they can attain a better diet, improved income generation, better health care, education and much more.