Good morning, dear reader,
in Germany debates about climate change seem strange: on the one hand shrill when it comes to the Kleber activists, on the other hand bureaucratic when politicians talk a lot at summit meetings but do little. In East Africa no longer need to convince anyone of the brutality of the climate crisis or the need to act immediately. Approximately in east kenya, where the fifth rainy season will be canceled this December. If there is no more water, everything changes.
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“Only three years ago there was a river here in the rainy season”, says Ismail Muhammad and points to the sea of sand behind her. “Now everything is dry.” 3,000 people live in his home village near the border with Somalia, a three-hour drive from the nearest town. “It just doesn’t rain. We don’t talk about anything else anymore.” Most of the goats, cattle and camels have already died of thirst. “The animals are our only income, we have nothing else,” says Ismail. Just five months ago he was getting almost 25 euros for a goat at the market. Now he gets nothing. “The animals are just skeletons,” he says, pointing to a tree under which a dying goat is breathing its last.
In desperation, the men dug holes in the dry river bed: At a depth of eight meters you will find water in some places. “It takes three months to dig a hole like this,” says Ismail, “but we’re only lucky with every third or fourth.” Two girls nimbly climb into one of the holes and come out with a canister. Every day they wait several hours in the scorching heat until enough water has collected below. Yes, they go to school in the morning, but actually that is no longer important. “It’s all about the water here,” says Ismail. “We urgently need help. Some families only have enough food for ten days.” In this video I tell more about the situation here.
Mahuba Abdelkadir, who lives in a village of huts 20 kilometers away, is also familiar with this need. She also saw how most of the family’s animals died. Now the 60-year-old looks after her seven grandchildren because their parents have moved on with the remaining goats in search of water. The old people, the children and most of the women are left behind. Mauba still has some money for the coming weeks, but she doesn’t know how much longer it will last. “I’m trying everything to get my grandchildren away from here and to give them a good education, including the girls. They should have work later so that they can help us.” Just like her neighbor: in her hut she sells sugar, sweets, shoes and electricity from a solar panel for cell phones in the village.
It’s not that people don’t help themselves. You try. But it’s getting harder and harder. This is also reflected in Rigdam, a water point in the area. 11,000 people from the wider area are cared for here. They laid a line to the next village of huts, but unfortunately the solar-powered pump was broken for several months. It has been repaired with the help of the United Nations, and now the line is even being extended to the next but one village. Previously, its residents had to walk to the well: seven kilometers there, seven back.
“Management is good, but the situation is still getting worse,” says Garad Mahumed Waeys. “It has hardly rained in the last three years, and then the water from the well is no longer enough. The herds are dying, almost nothing is growing anymore, and what little remains is eaten up by pests.” The 72-year-old is the head of a village near the 180-meter-deep well and has already lost 260 of his 300 goats. I filmed my impressions on site (look here) and asked him where he thought the lack of water came from. His answer came promptly: “The problem is climate change, everyone can see that! It used to rain heavily several times a year. Not any longer longer. Water has become the most important thing in the world for us.” I asked him if he wanted to get a message out to the Germans. He scratched the sand with his stick and then looked at me: “You know, you are our brothers . Please support us. It’s not our fault that we lose our herds. We’ll soon have nothing to eat.”
I promised him I would pass on his words. That’s why they’re here. What you want to do with it, dear reader, is up to you to decide. In any case, I have seen here with my own eyes that donations arrive locally and can mean the difference between life and death. So please have a look here or here or here.
