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E NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1974

Cattle wading through a flooded area late last August In Upper Volta, on the southern edge of the Sahara, where drought has broken>
Associated Pres

Rains in Sub-Sahara Area Raise
Hopes for Good Harvests Soon

By HENRY HAMM
Special to The New York Times
Nov. 10, 1974

DAKAR, Senegal-The coun- sumed that several thousand
tries below the Sahara that have died of hunger or of
suffered from catastrophic fa- diseases they could not resist
mine as a result of drought for because of their weakened
the last two years are enjoying state. Most of the deaths have
a normal autumn rainy season been in Chad, Niger, Mali and
that promises reasonable har- Mauritania.
vests in the weeks to come.

The crops will be far from Upper Volta, Senegal and
sufficient for the population of Gambia, the other countries of
25 million in the seven afflicted the Sahel - the geographic
sub-Saharan countries, but the word for "fringe"-were less
rains have revitalized the generally or less severely af-
peoples' hopes for survival and fected.
the confidence of the Govern- In all seven countries, which
ments that they, in turn, can were visited in the course of a
play a determining role. two-month tour, hundreds of

Although numbers may never thousands suffered hunger, ill-
be known in a region in which ness, the loss of livelihoods and
even the count of the living is
tirely dependent on foreign
funding and on the willingness
of the member Governments to
delegate powers to a regional
organization.

Whether donor nations are
willing to forgo bilateral for re-
gional assistance and whether
the Governments of the region
are prepared to put aside differ-
ences for common programs
are questions yet to be an-
swered.

With the rains' return, bring-
ing harvests where there have
been none for two years, there
have been floods that make
roads impassable and invasions
of caterpillars and grasshop-
pers and destructive birds.

Reflecting on nature's ap-
parent anger at the region and
its people, Mr. Dadji, the Sub-
prefect of Mongo, in Chad, fell
back on a proverb he heard in
his childhood and had not re-
called since he left for universi-
ty training in France. "Illness
comes at a gallop," he said,
"and leaves at a slow walk."

far from established, it is as- Continued on Page 34, Column 1

-SCIENTISTS
I told Warren Smith a year ago (for his new book "Predictions
For 1975" that I would cause the above to happen, in
Africa. It has happened.
Owen