John Magrath
John Magrath is a writer and researcher who has worked for Oxfam GB for over 20 years in a range of roles, including press officer and executive assistant to the Director. For the last three years, he has researched climate change implications for Oxfam's work.
Climate change 'last straw' for poor Ugandans
Diary: Climate impacts in Uganda - Part five Uganda's climate is changing. In particular, its once reliable main rainy season from March to June is becoming less so. Paul Isabirye of the Department of Meteorology in the Prime Minister's Office told me: "Production from the agriculture sector is becoming less and less as we experience more extreme events which are becoming more frequent and more intense, notably droughts. The rain oscillation is becoming bigger, rainfall distribution is poor so planning on seasonal rains is becoming harder and harder." ...
Termites top the menu for flood-hit Ugandans
Diary: Climate impacts in Uganda - Part four Unusually heavy and prolonged rains from July to November last year led to extraordinary floods across huge regions of north and eastern Uganda. Latrines were flooded and the germ-laden water contaminated the wells and other water sources, causing massive increases in dysentery - and more water contamination. Cases of malaria also shot up. Oxfam launched a big operation to provide emergency clean water and to replace latrines. ...
People and cattle go thirsty in Uganda's northeast
Diary: Climate impacts in Uganda - Part three Agriculturalists in Uganda aren't the only group of people reporting serious changes to their climate. The same changes have been observed by pastoralists and semi-pastoralists - people who keep herds of cattle and other livestock and are more or less mobile. Pastoralists mostly live in the more arid areas, and are highly skilled at living with a harsh and highly variable climate - provided they have the space to move. That space, however, is increasingly being denied them as governments try to settle them, and farmers fence off migration routes. ...
Climate change stops Ugandan children concentrating
Diary: Climate impacts in Uganda - Part two In researching climate change impacts on farmers and herders in Uganda recently, what struck me with great force was that everyone I spoke to - without a single exception - described the same large-scale changes in their climate over the last 20 or so years. Most of Uganda has a bi-modal climate - that is, there are two rainy seasons. One starts in March and lasts through until June. The second lasts from around October until about December. In the north the country is more arid; most rain comes in April then peters out until finishing in September. There have been big changes to both seasons. ...
Changing climate costs Ugandan women crops, money
Diary: Climate impacts in Uganda - Part one I have just come back from Uganda where I've been talking to farmers and animal herders about the impacts of climate changes on their lives. Does it have the same impact on everyone? It quickly becomes apparent that the answer is "no". ...
