The idea of snow capped mountains with ancient glaciers on them sitting in the middle of a vast jungle in an equatorial African country is quite strange to most people. The only other mountains in the world which sit on the equator, or very close to it, with glaciers on top of them sit in the middle of the vast Andean mountain range or Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya.

The Rwenzori Mountains run for around 120km along the Ugandan/DRC boarder in the east of the DRC. Jutting up to 5km from the surrounding jungles in one of the hottest parts and most humid parts of the world the glaciers that sit on top of them are a real rarity.

Records show that the glaciers covered 650ha in 1906, 352ha in 1955, 148ha in 2008 and will completely disappear within the next 30 years; meaning that the glaciers have shrunk by 75% in the last 100 years and 50% in the last 50 years. This is a clear indication that temperatures are rising.

They are also an important source of water for the many rivers that flow from the mountains and, therefore, for millions of people in the region.

The disappearance of these glaciers is putting the, already strained, water security of millions of people who live in the area under strain. This could cause more serious water shortages in the more arid parts of this region of Africa. As this are is one of the water catchments areas for many rivers in the region as may of the rivers flowing on the Ugandan side of the mountain range flow into Lake Victoria which is one of the sources of the Nile.

It is already established that one of the major reasons for the trouble in Dafure in Sudan, which is further down the Nile River, is an increasing lack of access to water and desertification.

Sources:

ENN: http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/33149
About the Ruwenxori Range: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruwenzori_Range
WWF News: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=127620

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In this article some of the negative effects of rapid economic development, industrialisation and more open-markets are having on the hand-woven sari industry in India. Economists are always saying that with any economic development, whether it be from trade liberalisation to industrialisation or realignment of an economy to a more beneficial industry, society will suffer some pain in the readjustment; but that the overall gain to society vastly makes up for it. One needs to only look at the lives that people in developed countries lead as proof of this.

But, and it’s a big “But”, the reality of this suffering is not often brought to one’s attention often enough. In developing countries, like India, where so many people live in poverty, living off less then US$2 a day, such developments can mean the difference between surviving and absolute impoverishment.

One would like to think that in this day and age societies would have developed mechanisms to help people who fall through the cracks of rapid development in third world countries. However it seems that we do not know enough about the intriquicies of industrialisation and development to properly predict these things and deal with them. Come to think of it people are still debating how to start and maintain such economic development in the first place let alone fully understanding it when it does happen.

I agree with the article in that the hand-woven sari industry needs a good dose of marketing but what surprises me is how the NGOs and civil society groups doing the marketing are only marketing in India. It would make good sense to expand that marketing to foreign markets in places like the US, Europe, South America, ect.

Whilst it is doubtful that even the most successful of marketing campaigns will help all the weavers it will certainly go a long way towards mitigating the problem.

On the other hand there is also a darker side to the industry as discussed in this BBC article. Where due to the poverty of the parents and loan sharking by loom owners children are made into “bonded labourers” and forced to work for next to nothing; further entrenching them in poverty as they do not have to time to get even a basic education.

This part of the industry must be dealt with and the marketing of hand woven sari’s must be done in a way that does not encourage this part of the industry.

References:
*An Ancient Indian Craft Left in Tatters: Washington Post
*Misery of India's child sari weavers: BBC

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