This year, I decided not to really report on Harmattan because I was studying the sudden changes in its pattern over the past three years. How it has mysteriously changed from its normal occurrence from early November and its end in the early weeks of January. Over the past three years, I have observed that the harmattan starts in late December and ends in February! This is very outrageous because this sudden change is affecting everything around us in Ghana.

It comes with its own side effects as well. The harmattan comes with an increase in humidity and a drop in temperature. It is literally impossible to bathe with cold water during this period. The increase in humidity however is where all the danger looms. This means water can easily be loss in all living tissues and when this happens, anything at all can burn.

Since the start of December last year to the end of February this year, more than 50 fire outbreaks have been reported and there has been some casualties as well. Indiscriminate burning could be blamed for this occurrence but most importantly, we the people have to carry the blames for this omen. I have seen a case where green grass was captured burning because there no water in it to help slow the burn and that is the effect of an increase in humidity. Farmers prefer to burn that to weed, the set off the fires, forgetting or not knowing that there is high humidity and instead burning just a small portion of land, they end up burning people’s homes and properties.

I don’t really like the harmattan, because I really need to hydrate almost every hour, and I tend to bleed from my nose once I don’t wear a mask owing to the presence of dust in the harmattan air around me; I even sleep with my mask on, that is how I suffer personally during the harmattan period.

Education is the only way out of this. I try as much as I can to educate anybody I come into contact with during this harmattan period, on its effects on life and how we could safely maneuver our ways out of it. By and large we would continue to monitor and report on the changes in climatic conditions around the country, and boldly say this is because of climate change, this is a living evidence and hope it changes our ways of doing things. We ought to prioritize the environment first in all of our dealings and realize now, that climate change is very real. I see and feel it every day!

Green Cheers From Ghana