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It is not news to anyone that mean ocean surface temperatures are rising. In fact, they have risen by about 1.1 degrees since the preindustrial era. For many people, there is this idea that oceans are over there, just a lot of water and not of much use to the majority of human beings and so we should not be preoccupied by a 1.1 degree change in ocean temperature. Well, they are wrong. What people often forget is that the oceans, not forests, are the biggest carbon sinks that we have on planet earth. Oceans store 30% of CO2 and 93% of greenhouse gases.
Increases in mean ocean surface temperature affect you more than you realise. For one, they are causing more low-pressure areas and the formation of tornadoes, hurricanes (Atlantic Ocean), cyclones (Indian Ocean) and typhoons (Pacific Ocean). The impacts of these weather events are also increasing, as we have seen with Cyclones Idai, Kenneth, Batsirai and Chido more recently. Other similar impacts include more turbulence for airplanes and more destruction to infrastructure in impact areas.
Then there is coastal erosion as well. Many coastal communities around the African continent have lost anywhere between ten and 100 metres to the sea over the last half century.
Bargny in Senegal is in the direct line of this fire and Cheick Fadel Wade has been working overtime to get decision makers’ attention to the crisis that is playing out in his community. This native son of Bargny, who has always lived in the area, has seen the power of the sea up close and watched it destroy entire neighbourhoods. Solidarité Ci Sutura, which he founded with other Bargny activists has been documenting and sharing stories of disaster and loss for more than two decades.
“It is unbelievable what is happening here. If you go down to the coastline, you will see for yourself that entire compounds along the entire coastline have been destroyed”.
Bargny used to be a fishing village before it was progressively absorbed into the larger Dakar area. Many residents of Bargy, Bargnois as they are called, are still fisher folk. In Senegal, practices are guided by ancestral traditions that promote the collective over the individual. Adult males go out to sea, sometimes for more than a week at a time, to catch fish. When they bring back the fish, the women take over. They take the fish from the fishermen and retail it on the shore. A lot of fish is also salted because Senegalese fish is exported across west and central Africa. The widows of fishermen also get something from the catch of the day. It has always been like this around these parts.
Coastal erosion and salinisation is colliding with the normal order and causing many societal issues. When strong tidal forces wash down houses, victims are forced to retreat into the homes further behind. This means that there are often as many as five families in one compound, about ten people in one room when disaster strikes.
“That is one of the biggest problems in Bargny,” says Fadel. “You have many people packing into one room because they have nowhere else to go. When a house collapses, people pack their belongings and move into a neighbour or relative’s house. You can imagine the social issues that this comes with: the hunger, the lack of privacy, the lack of a conducive environment for studying, the lack of privacy for parents, the possibility of abuses happening…”
Fadel adds that another element is the number of children leaving Senegal for greener pastures.
“Senegal has signed agreements with China and the EU to let their boats fish in our waters. We also have too many canoes that have been registered for fishing purposes, and so there is overfishing in Senegalese waters. Our fisher folk now have to go to Guinea Bissau or Mauritania to fish. Some young people just pack their belongings and leave”.
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In Bargny, young men often see it as their responsibility to change their family’s fortune. Fadel shows me his phone.
“The youth are all leaving. Due to climate change, they are losing their homes, and there is less fish in the sea. There is nothing keeping them here. If you look here, this mother for example, her soon left for Spain a week ago. Every day, you hear that someone has left. The boys prefer to arrive in Europe before texting their families. Many never make it. Their mothers keep watching their phones for weeks, months, years …”
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Fadel has been working within regional and international networks to keep the pressure on polluting nations. He helped set up Senegal’s National Climate Justice Platform (PLAJC), along with Rosa Luxemburg’s Ibrahima Thiam. The platform has organised a Climate School every year for the past five years. Fadel believes that he has to be everywhere, all the time, to get decision makers to finally start making ambitious decisions and investments to help communities like Bargny.
He is a vocal critic of Senegal’s oil and gas future. Although the country has started pumping oil from the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim site, he wonders if this is not a wrong priority for the government.
He is even more baffled that the Senegalese government is still pushing anthropocentric development policies. “I understand that there is pressure to get money for development, but the government should be getting partners to promote our natural assets rather than drilling for oil. We are destroying our future for a few million dollars. Even Sangomar is at risk of being destroyed,” Fadel laments.
Fadel is also very active within the Conference of the Parties round. He is happy that a Loss and Damage initiative was finally adopted in COP27 but he has doubts about how the instrument is going to be implemented.
“We are witnessing the effects of a catastrophe that we did not cause. They adopted a 100 billion dollars fund in Paris, but where is that money today? It is a complete joke! The fund itself is too small, there is nothing to show that the money will materialise, and when it comes to our countries, who is going to manage it? We should be directly involved in how this priority is playing out,” he says.
He believes that the Loss and Damage Fund should be rolled out in the form of transfers of technology and resources from developed to developing nations (excluding China, Saudi Arabia, India, Qatar, Mexico and other countries on a similar level) to improve access to energy and better agriculture.
“The Climate School that we had in Ziguinchor filled me with hope. The youth are very engaged in the fight for a greener Senegal. They are also very committed to circular and solidarity economies. Traditional authorities have been surprisingly very receptive to our school of ecology. One chief who has lost many hectares of land due to ocean salinisation told us that he would campaign for all his peers to get behind the push for a just transition in Senegal. Climate change is an equal opportunity offender. It is hitting EVERYBODY hard.”
Fadel has worked on a number of projects, including Bargny Project, SOS Bargny, Migrations and many others. Looking forward, he hopes that PLAJC can coordinate with others to get big outcomes in Bélem.
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