I saw a show on TV a few weeks ago that (in passing) claimed that more people die from drowning in the African deserts than dehydration. This (supposedly) was due to the extremely heavy rains, when it does rain, and the floodings it causes.
They didn’t show any data to substantiate this and it sounds fishy (pun intended)… Anyone have any real facts to prove or disprove this?
/Markus
Actually, it kinda makes sense. People who live in deserts, or the periphery of deserts, tend NOT to die of thirst; they tend to be too careful, too knowledgeable, for that. You plan your entire TRIP around water, for the most part, when you go somewhere. How much water will it take us to get from oasis to oasis?
But if you haven’t been keeping up with the weather news, a downpour can turn a ditch or gully or even a low-lying large area into a very sudden deathtrap. When they call it “flash flooding,” they mean it.
http://www.awitness.org/journal/sahara_floods.html
"The images above show dramatic darkening, pushing northward, along the southern edge of the Sahara, the result of exceptionally heavy rains this summer. The same rains that have pushed back the desert region in the South was also responsible for the heat wave in Europe as the hot, dry air of a Sahara summer was pushed north into Europe.
Hundreds of mud brick structures in Timbuktu, a Unesco Heritage site on the Sahara, have been melted by this years torrential rains in the area, including some structures as much as 600 years old. Because Timbuktu does not have a drainage system, even more modern structures have collapsed when their foundations sunk into the muck. The Niger river is less than an inch below flood stage, and millions of people who live along its banks are being warned to move to higher ground as more heavy rains are in the forecast for the region. The Niger is currently experiencing a flow of eight times as much water as is typical for the rainy season. Flooding is taking places in countries all along the Southern borders of the Sahara region, including Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, and the flooding of the Niger and exceptionally heavy rains along the border regions of the Sahara have caused flooding further south in Nigeria, which has affected close to one hundred thousand people so far, with further torrential rains in the forecast. Bomako, the capital of Mali, has been flooded, leaving about 10,000 people homeless, and thousands of others have lost crops around the region, according to the Red Cross and other agencies providing relief efforts. With more heavy rains coming, there is the possibility of further crop damage for the millions who live along the banks of the swollen rivers, should they burst their banks."
Doesn’t mention folks drowning, but, as close as africans usually live near water, very few ever learn how to swim. This is probably because the tropical african waters are usually very dangerous places. They contain more predators and parasites than waters in Europe and North America.
Deserts are more vulnerable to flash flooding during heavy rain because the ground, although dry, is hard and does not readily absorb water. Therefore, the runoff is very fast and can easily cause a waterway to overflow its banks and overwhelm a village.