An Eco Congregation supporter from Kenya, Samuel Bundi, has sent the following report, which gives a real insight into how climate change is affecting people in Africa. Samuel is originally from Kenya, although he is currently living in Zambia:
How is climate change beginning to affect Kenya and East Africa as a whole?
There is a huge gap in our knowledge on the impact of climate change in East Africa. At the moment, very little research is being done that gives us a clear picture on the modelling of impacts in this sub-region on climate change.
The general feeling is that we will see more dramatic droughts and more dramatic precipitation. Whether this will fall into the cycles we have grown accustomed to, or whether the monsoonal changes that will result in increased warming of the Indian Ocean will give us a totally different weather pattern, we don’t know.
The expectation, however, is that some areas in Kenya will get more rain and other areas will get less rain on average and the periods of no rain may be extended and longer while the degree of rainfall may increase to the point where flooding, mudslides and that sort of thing become a serious issue.
It is only if you bring numbers down that we will be able to find a way for resource utilisation per capita to increase. It is the only way you are going to deal with poverty and unless you deal with poverty, the situation can only spiral downwards.
This is a massive problem and the solutions are not simply condoms versus draconian measures such as one child per family. It has to be looked at in different countries in different ways. I think there has to be a commitment everywhere to slow and stop population growth.
What can we do as a country and regionally? As to what Kenya can do, I would urge our researchers to look back at old records and try to draw up some picture of whether there are discernible trends. Are there are any indications that give us insight into sea level change?
There is also bound to be a lot of anecdotal evidence from farmers and fishermen about seasons and when people plant crops. We need to be accumulating a great deal more local information. Looking at what happens in America, Europe or Ireland can help us to plan.
We also need to look into our planning rules, such as where people are allowed to build or whether people should be clearing steep slopes in valleys that could lead to landslides. We should certainly be thinking about conservation of water; we should be thinking very carefully about how much water we can afford to waste. Can we put water back into the aquifer as they do in Australia?
I think we need to start thinking about government intervention in irrigation systems and the water off-take levels. We have some rules that can be improved upon as we are wasting so much water. Water harvesting is of particularly critical importance.
Although our output of carbon dioxide from transportation is relatively small, this is no reason not to be more serious about our carbon dioxide emissions. Much more should be done by urban authorities to insist on more efficient transportation such as vehicles that have better emission standards. If public transport is sufficiently reliable, many of us would not have to drive our cars to work. The condition of our roads and the fact that so many cars use the roads carrying only one or two people can all be avoided. This should be addressed.
We could have commuter trains that carry large numbers in whom at the moment, travel in vehicles that only seat 14 people. This is highly inefficient. We have to recognise that while we may not be a significant contributor to the global carbon dioxide totals; our small contribution of fumes that we are pumping into the air is taking its toll. In the mornings when there is no wind, you can see the brown, yellow smog over the city. This is going into our lungs and it is bound to have an effect over the long term.
I don’t know what the statistics are but I know from conversations that I have had with medical authorities indicate that respiratory diseases are on the increase in this country. The question of air transport and what it is going to do – well, we are already beginning to see questions as to whether countries that fly horticultural produce to markets across the world are in fact providing organic produce.
Carbon dioxide trading is an interesting idea and is certainly one that hasn’t been fully explored in Kenya. I think people should get a credit for retaining indigenous forest rather than simply being rewarded for replanting forests that they have cut down. I think that there are a lot of changes in the International Convention on what you can trade and how you can do it but I would think that biodiversity, indigenous forests as well as plantation forests, could all lend themselves to development efforts in countries such as Kenya.
We need to become much more familiar with what is possible and what can be done and I think you could see much of the reforestation necessary in this country for our timber needs, fuel and paper being financed through international funds. Sadly, many of us don’t have the capacity to access such schemes.
We in Kenya need to be conscious of the need for energy but rather than go the easy route and opt for dirty energy.
Kenya in particular has been affected by climate change in different and many ways. Last year we had a long drought, lasted for 8 months. Many people lost animals – there was no grass or water to feed them. This is the result of people cutting down trees to settle in Mau Forest in the Rift Valley province of Kenya after the post election of 2007. Many were vacated to this place.
It has affected the economy. Life is very expensive in Kenya – food, energy, fuel etc. Many factories and sectors of employment have been closed down, leading to joblessness.
Again, when the rains came in November it was floods. Whatever was planted was destroyed, people lost life and property. One of the regions very much affected is north-eastern Kenya. They haven’t received rains for three years now. It is desert. They get strong wind from the border of southern Sudan to Kenya.
The Government of Kenya has tried to encourage citizens to plant trees and cut those along water catchment areas. Some factories, which had great influence on air pollution, have been closed.
Tourism has gone down as a result of many game parks’ animals dying.
Samuel Bundi attended an enjoyable Palm Sunday celebration in Zambia, which included Christians from five denominations joining together in a procession through town, singing and shaking palms. On St Patrick’s Day he attended “a wonderful mass with African dancing”. A number of Irish people attended, including the Irish ambassador to Zambia, His Excellency Tony Cotter.