The disaster in Libya puts focus on climate change

On 11 September 2023, Eastern Libya woke up to a natural disaster that exceeded in scope anything historically documented in Libya or any that the living have experienced in their lifetime. Storm Daniel struck the region, leaving massive damage, with the city of Derna suffering the largest share, where the storm turned into a disaster in every sense of the word with the number of victims expected to exceed ten thousand dead or missing, in addition to property destruction.

The storm had swept other countries in the Mediterranean basin, carrying with it record amounts of rain when it reached land in Libya, filling the usually dry Derna Valley and the pressure of the water level caused the collapse of two dams built in the 1970s to protect the city from floods, unleashing a massive torrent that swept through the city, sweeping away entire neighborhoods with its residents, homes, apartments and cars into the sea.

Rescue teams are still exerting efforts to extract the bodies of these people who, for an hour and a half, found themselves surrounded by water in their homes and vehicles and then carried by this heavy pouring water to their death. The affected neighborhoods are located on both banks of the valley that passes through the city center, and the infrastructure has been subjected to extensive destruction, including the bridges linking the east and west of the city.

Because of the magnitude of this disaster, and because Libyans have no familiarity, knowledge or experience with storms and how to prepare for it – as the worst natural disasters that befell Libya previously was an earthquake in the city of Al-Marj in the 60s of the last century, and the loss of lives and property it caused pales in comparison to this storm. Even then, the elderly still remember the earthquake and pray for mercy for its victims.

In view of all this, the Libyan State announced that this disaster exceeds its capabilities and is beyond its capacity. Many countries rushed to help, including, but not limited to, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Palestine. The Philippines offered to provide monetary assistance, and the United States pledged to provide assistance, while Britain joined Finland, France, Italy and Romania in European aid efforts.

Now that hopes of finding survivors have diminished to a great extent, rescue teams face a major challenge in exhuming the bodies of victims who were swept into the sea, not to mention lack of body bags and concerns of spreading epidemic diseases due to the large number of bodies that have not been recovered yet.

On the other hand, as the proverb says, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” and this storm has revived noticeably the sense of brotherhood and solidarity among Libyans, with hundreds of young people from all over Libya volunteering to quickly help their eastern brethren. These fraternal human sentiments are a true reflection of the genuine good nature Libyans possess; sentiments which were almost overshadowed by the senseless wars some Libyans were involved in in previous times.

In conclusion, I must emphasize an issue that has become not only urgent but of great importance – that of climate change. While recognizing that this disaster had many causes, the city of Derna has never recorded such a large amount of rainfall of more than 400 millimeters within 24 hours, double what would fall during an entire rainy season in previous years (the average annual rainfall is 274 millimeters), in addition to the fact that the season is not a rainy season.

The disasters resulting from this phenomenon have spared no country nor region in the world, and in recent years its consequences have become more aggravated, requiring us to take urgent steps to save what can be saved if we wish to preserve for our future generations a habitat in which they can live in dignity.

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Mohamed M.O. Melad is the Charge d’Affaires, a.i., of the Libyan embassy in Manila.