TT: Africa has difficulties to cope with climate change - je 25.09.07

Climate researchers say water crises will be one of the first ways that climate change causes hardship. And it is the poorest countries that will likely suffer most. Drought-ridden areas are at risk of becoming full fledged deserts as temperatures rise in coming decades. Water could become more precious in many places than oil. That may seem paradoxical to Africans whose fields were submerged in the recent floods, but scientists say the disaster only bore out their predictions: long deprived of water, the rock hard earth failed to absorb rain when it finally fell. +++SYN-MAZ+++