Authors: Butu LEVI, Hüseyin Gökçekuş, Youssef Kassem 

Site of publication: International research journal of engineering  and technology 

Type of publication: research article 

Date of publication:  February 2022

Link to the original document

 

---

 

INTRODUCTION   

Liberia is an under-developed country facing more problems due to changes in climate such as clean water, heavy rainfall, scarcity of natural resources and others. But this thesis is more focused on problems of groundwater and surface due to climate change in Liberia. Liberia is already in the phase of underdevelopment and has not much ability to respond to climate change effectively. 

Climate change not only affected natural resources but also decrease overall social and economic development. Already Liberia has low development and increasing population per year also impact on climate change and scarcity of natural resources. 25% of the population in Liberia are facing the problem of water scarcity and almost 70% have water abundant but water is not in the condition of usage, though climate change seriously affected groundwater and surface of Liberia.

Liberia is considered to have abundant water resources as compared to different Sub-Saharan countries. Per capita of water availability in Liberia is 49,028 m3 which is considered as the third highest per capita of water as compared to Sub-Saharan countries, according to a USAID report. Moreover, Liberia is considered one of the countries which face heavy rainfall so they have more water resources. Despite this, Liberia has fewer flows of dry seasons and due to less flow of the dry season, St. Paul River is unable to produce enough hydropower energy at the Mount Coffee Dam. Mount Coffee Dam is the largest source of hydropower energy in Monrovia – the capital of Liberia.

Climate Change and Surface Water

It has been found that humic substances in the soil and the wetlands notably contribute to the CC by producing greenhouse gasses. 81% of the organic carbon resources are used in degrading soil organic matter which results in increasing the CO2 emission from the soil. It has been shown that an increase in the 1°C temperature would result in the loss of 10% carbon in the area having the mean temperature of 5°C, but on the other hand, the loss of 3% is incurred where the same temperature increases since the mean temperature is around 30°C.

The consequences of CC are very difficult to predict. It includes the rise in the sea level, increases in the emission of gasses, maximum weather events, and changes in bioavailability and environmental stability.  Moreover, it can be predicted that CC will overcome the existing freshwater problems. As we know, freshwater, which is considered a necessity for us, contributes only about 2.5% of the water present on the Earth.

Results

The climate of Liberia is usually tropical and hot, with a year-round rainy season from May to October due to the African monsoon, so other months as well, except for the short dry season that occurs between December and October. It rains quite often. On the other hand, February will be more prominent in the north. In the above-given map, it can be seen that there is an alert situation in the whole country since the whole country will be experiencing a high river flood which will affect the groundwater plus it will be a great threat to human life as it is occurring in the year. As it is further seen that Liberia is on the worth of facing a highly risky urban flood and the coastal flooding will affect the sea level forcing it to increase.  Moreover, the visual representation also shows that the population densities like Monrovia and the coastal zone will face an overlapping because of the flood zones having high vulnerability.  

CONCLUSIONS  

In the end, it can be concluded that climate change (CC) is an important region of science which have been in focus and studied for many years. The climate change in Liberia has a great impact on the SW and the GW in many of the African countries. Some of these impacts include the contamination of the water, burning of fossil fuels, flooding, the unexpected rise in the sea level, droughts in the land creating problems in the surface and groundwater network.

Change the route of history that progresses through. It is the responsibility of all international people to be aware of this and come up with successful solutions together to mitigate the problem, as minor negligence can result in higher costs later. Not listening to this immediate international call is a serious mistake.

Recommendations 

Based on the findings of the research, it can be concluded: 

1. 1. The government of Liberia needs to reduce wastage and control the greenhouse gasses which are damaging our atmosphere.
   2. Moreover, the government and the citizens should come up with strategies to reduce the toxic gasses from the factories and the industries.
   3. The toxic material or the waste from the factories and industries should be dumped properly in order to protect the water and the land from becoming contaminated.
   4. Proper filtration of the water should be made in order to control the environmental problems.