5 of 21

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

all consequences of global warming. Up to 80% of the flocks these pastoralists depend on for their livelihood have died due to lack of pasture and water.

Waititu reports that the strain on natural resources led to conflicts between the Borena and Guji groups in 2006 in southern Ethiopia. The Guji seized land that had traditionally belonged to the Borena resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people and the displacement of tens of thousands.

Also reporting for the Common Language Program, Alex Stonehill writes of a similar struggle for water in western Kenya on Lake Victoria and the Nile river system shared by nine countries in East Africa. Local, national and international conflicts are brewing around these interconnected water sources.

The lake is shrinking due to rising temperatures, decreased rainfall, watershed deforestation by Kenyan farmers and new hydroelectric projects at the source of the Nile in Uganda. Kenyan fishermen who stray into Ugandan waters in search of fish clash with Ugandan fishermen and have been arrested by the Ugandan military.

Hundreds of miles down the river Nile, Ethiopia has increased outflow by irrigating new large swathes of land in its quest for agricultural industrialization. Egypt is, likewise, pumping millions of gallons out to reclaim vast sections of its desert. The tensions arising from the strain on these significant freshwater sources in East Africa have the potential to escalate into an international conflict.

The 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that Africa, even though it has contributed the least towards Global Warming, will be the continent most affected by it because widespread poverty limits capabilities to adapt. In Waititu's report, Negusu Aklilu, director of the Forum for the Environment in Ethiopia, reflects, "Is it because we Africans are irresponsible? Is it because we are careless? No. It is because people are poor. We are dependent on natural resources."

In today's global civilization, we must realize that events in one region eventually affect those living in another region. So now when I turn a faucet on I remember that my use of water has worldwide impact. And I tell others. Wouldn't you?

Learn more about this author, Minda Magero.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

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!