Impacts

• When crops fail and when livestock die off the food supply is reduced leading to malnutrition and famine. People reduced to eating seeds which should have been planted in the next year
• Traditional lifestyles breakdown and people are displaced as refugees. This can cause political instability
• Conflict over land and resources as people are forced to move and resettle. There is also a growth of large refugee camps (e.g. Darfur)
• Some sahelian countries are becoming increasingly reliant on international aid for food and water. Impacting development of sahelian countries as debt repayments are high
• GNP falls as little crops/ animal products are produced
• Farmers fall into poverty as they have nothing to sell (crops or animal produce). They can no longer afford basic needs such as: electricity, water and money for school fees
• Loss of fertile topsoil through water or wind erosion, leading to the inability of the land to support vegetation
• Rural migration into overcrowded urban areas in the south of the Sahel has caused more pressure on the growth of shanty towns
• The collapse of the nomadic way of life due to the lack of grazing and water. This forces many nomads to settle in villages increasing tension in these areas
• Desertification has become so severe that it has led to the southward expansion of the Sahara Desert into the Sahel. In the last 50 years, 65 million hectares of the Sahel have turned into desert.
• Salinisation occurs, the water from the soil being evaporated bringing salt to the surface. This occurs due to the high temperatures in the Sahel. The salts are toxic to many plants and makes the land unusable for farming