Africa's
population is growing at a dangerous rate, Ethiopia has a population of
85 million, among which about 10 million is starving, the country is
reported to have a growth rate of 2.6%, which means in 20 years
Ethiopia’s population will hit about 130 million. Egypt's recent unrest
was about food and standard of living, but their population stands to
double in just over 30 years, so they will still continue to starve.
Many African's are still not using birth control and family planning
measures, if we continue to procreate at the rate we are now, though
regrettably, many more will starve to death. Somalia,is currently going
through acute famine, with no food to eat or water to drink, with many
already dead, also parts of Kenya, Djibouti, Sudan and Uganda
experiencing the worst drought in 60 years; but that has not stopped
more children being sired in the region. Josette Sheeran of the World
Food Programme wrote that “A hungry world is a dangerous world. Without food, people have only three options: they riot, they emigrate or they die.”
Africans
have failed to address the imminent disaster inherent in the continent
because of their increasing population. Despite the history of bad and
clueless leadership, poverty, weak economy and famine currently ravaging
several parts of Africa, its people have continued to procreate at
rapid rate, increasing the already overpopulated planet if compared with
the available resources. This rapidly increasing population is having a
big negative-impact on our world and until we began to address this, we
may not start to get solution to the impending trouble we are
subjecting the continent to.
The
United Nation's population division has recently predicted that the
world's population will reach 7 Billion by the end of this year. This is
a big global problem and will have further negative impact in the
already over-stretched resources of the world. There is need to be
concerned and Africa needs to be more concerned if it is to improve the
situation of the continent and manage the already limited resources.
United Nation has noted that the world population has increased by 1
Billion over the last 12 years and 4.5 Billion over the last 60 years,
while our food supply and energy reserve has not expanded to keep pace
with the the population growth. The surge is having a great impact on
our planet and if it continues, it may well be catastrophic.
More
than 2 in 5 pregnancies in Africa are unintended. The rate at which we
are having children needs to be urgently addressed if we aim to move the
continent forward. The intuition in different parts of Africa that
women must procreate as many children as they can to show they are
fertile, should be stopped immediately, the world has gone past that
era. Now is the time to plan; rather than forecast the future, we need
to start securing it. Let us make provisions to secure and protect the
children we already have, than make more to suffer.
It
is becoming increasingly difficult to put on the television on a daily
basis, all you are inundated with is the pictures of some poor,
improvised African children, looking weak, lean and malnourished, with
some charity organisations seeking help to feed and care for them. You
also see their still pregnant mothers in the background, all looking
stunted and malnourished, yet they have not stopped making more children
or use birth control measures. Furthermore, it is becoming very
difficult to explain to our western neighbours and friends that this is
not entirely the situation in the whole of Africa, as they have been
made to believe this how we live in Africa. They see these debilitating
and heart breaking pictures everywhere they go, from the wall of their
malls and train stations to their offices, on the billboards in the
street and when they turn on their television, these pictures are
everywhere.
Some
may argue that our growing population in Africa is not the problem, but
the scarce resources. Some may also attribute it to the African
Government. We have our way of passing our aberration on others, which
is why we constantly attribute the food shortage, hunger, poverty and
famine we have experienced in Africa to our leaders; though Africa has a
history of bad, sit-tight and clueless leadership, however we all have
roles to play to manage the population explosion. We need to address
this issue head-on and realise that if we do not stop procreating as we
are at the moment, the amount of per-capital arable land for food
production in Africa will soon get to a dangerously and unbearable
low-level.
We
can sure manage this situation if we reduce the number of children we
progenerate and concentrate our energy in developing our continent,
rather than the embarrassing situation we put ourselves. Africa will
develop if our energy is galvanised towards creating ideas and not
children we cannot cater for as we do at the moment. We are not created
to simply eat and procreate, it takes more energy and time to keep
procreating than it will for us to develop a model continent.
There
is no doubt that the growing population is affecting the decreasing
resources in Africa and adversely impacting on its sustainability. This
growth is having direct impact on the environmental cycle, our glaciers,
lakes and forests are disappearing, fresh water is scarce, there is
limited food to go round and inadequate power supply. We are all in this
together, we need to curtail the menace and play our part if we want
Africa to work.
