5 of 22

Write now Article Tools

Faadi Jilo makes a daily four mile trek to pick up water for her family. But she doesn't hop into a Suburban and drive to the local grocery store for bottled water. The thirty year old Ethiopian woman lashes an empty twenty-five liter jerrycan onto her back for the daily sojourn to procure a resource that most of us take for granted.

The daily eight mile round trip walk for Jilo used to be much shorter. Water was in plentiful supply because of the copious precipitation that fell for three and a half months during the rainy season. The rainy season's surfeit of water was enough to sustain local wells and lakes throughout the rest of the year.

A combination of factors has coalesced to drastically reduce the water supply. Deforestation and irresponsible agricultural practices are partly to blame. A population explosion has caused massive erosion and industrial pollution along the once pristine and fertile Nile River Valley. Antiquated colonial era Nile River treaties force pastorals in Eastern Africa to farm the land without access to the river basin.

The desperate water supply situation is evident in the Horn of Africa region. Two of the countries hardest hit-Ethiopia and Kenya-are experiencing record droughts. Once full after the rainy season, wells are now depleted three months before the next cycle of precipitation. With the dwindling rains comes a rise in average seasonal temperatures that scorch a once fertile landscape teeming with lakes and wildlife.

The erratic rainfall pattern over the past ten years is attributed to global warming. The pastoralists that tend to this increasingly barren land don't care about data that supports the scientific theory of global warming. Through years of raising livestock and growing the cash crop chat, all the pastoralists understand is that an abrupt climate change has decimated their livelihood.

In Ethiopia, it is estimated that eighty out of every one hundred animals owned by pastoralists died in the last year. The drastic loss of livestock has locals concerned that human beings aren't far behind. A 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change bluntly forecasts that the irreversible effects of global warming will besiege Africans with famine, poverty, disease, and death. It will be Mother Nature's version of genocide.

Already, the dire circumstances have forced local tribal factions to square off over water resources. 2005 was the seminal year for violence as 70 people were brutally killed in northern Kenya's

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about How is the struggle for water, such as in Ethiopia and Kenya, shaping conflicts in this century??
We want to hear your view. Write now!